The Works of Abū Manṣūr al-Thaʿālibī (350-429/961-1039)

copy Koninklijke Brill NV Leiden 2009 DOI 101163008523709X12554960674539

Journal of Arabic Literature 40 (2009) 273-318 brillnljal

The Works of Abū Mansūr al-Thaʿālibī (350-429961-1039)

Bilal OrfaliAmerican University of Beirut

AbstractThis article deals with the oeuvre of Abū Mansūr al-Thaʿālibī a prominent literary figure of the Eastern part of the Islamic world in the 4th10th century It deals with some of the literary and social issues that led to the numerous problems of false attribution and duplication in his bibli-ography such as patronage and the periodical reworking of his books This is followed by an up-to-date bibliography for al-Thaʿālibī based on archives primary sources and secondary lit-erature Works in print and manuscript form are assessed as to their authenticity and content including bibliographical information on published works and locations of manuscripts A further list reunites lost works and those surviving in quotations with references to the extant passages

KeywordsAbū Mansūr al-Thaʿālibī ʿAbbāsid prose ʿAbbāsid poetry Būyid Sāmānid Ghaznavid Saljūq manuscripts compilation anthology adab

Abū Mansūr ʿAbd al-Malik b Muhammad b Ismāʿīl al-Thaʿālibī (350-429961-1039) was a prominent figure of his time who participated in the extraordinary literary efflorescence which in his generation made the cities of his region Khurāsān serious rivals to Baghdād and its wider cultural sphere1 Al-Thaʿālibīrsquos life was politically unstable due to the continuous con-flicts between the Būyid Sāmānid Ghaznavid and Saljūq rulers who had created independent states that served as destinations for itinerant poets and prose writers Hence during the course of his life al-Thaʿālibī traveled

1 For a detailed biography of al-Thaʿālibī see Rowson ldquoal-Thaʿālibīrdquo EI 2 X 426a-427b C Brockelmann GAL I 284-6 S I 499-502 C E Bosworth (tr) The Latāʾif al-Maʿārif of Thaʿālibī [The Book of Curious and Entertaining Information] Edinburgh University Press 1968 1-31 Muhammad ʿAbdallāh al-Jādir al-Thaʿālibī nāqidan wa-adīban Beirut Dār al-Nidāl 1991 15-132 Zakī Mubārak al-Nathr al-fannī fī l-qarn al-rābiʿ Cairo al-Maktaba al-Tijāriyya al-Kubrā [1957] 2 179-90 and the primary sources provided there See also B W Orfali The Art of Anthology Al-Thaʿālibī and His Yatīmat al-dahr (PhD dissertation) Yale University New Haven 2009

274 B Orfali Journal of Arabic Literature 40 (2009) 273-318

extensively within the Eastern part of the Islamic world visiting centers of learning and meeting other prominent figures of his time These travels allowed him to collect directly from various authors or written works the vast amount of material that he deploys in his numerous wide-ranging works many of which are dedicated to the prominent patrons of his time

Al-Thaʿālibī lived in an era when a good poet had also to fill the role of a prose writer just as a scribe or a prose writer needed to practice poetry2 Al-Thaʿālibī belongs to the group of udabāʾ who mastered both arts Early in the primary sources he was given the title of ldquoJāhiz of Nīshāpūrrdquo3 Biogra-phers and anthologists who worked shortly after his death included selections from both his prose and his poetry His artistic skill in prose is demonstrated in the prefaces to his works the preparatory entries on poets from Yatīmat al-dahr and his technique in hall al-nazm [prosification lit untying the poetry] which can be seen in his Nathr al-nazm wa-hall al-ʿaqd (see entry number

2 The title of Abū Hilāl al-ʿAskarīrsquos work K al-Sināʿataynmdashal-Kitāba wa-l-shiʿr ldquoBook of the two artsmdashprose and poetryrdquo demonstrates the equal emphasis on poetry and prose In his al-Maqāma al-Jāhiziyya al-Hamadhānī uses the voice of his narrator Abū l-Fath al-Iskandarī to criticize the celebrated al-Jāhiz (d 255869) for failing in this respect ldquoVerilyrdquo al-Iskandarī claims ldquoal-Jāhiz limps in one department of rhetoric and halts in the otherrdquo The narrator expands the point by saying that the eloquent man is the one ldquowhose poetry does not detract from his prose and whose prose is not ashamed of his verserdquo See Badīʿ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī The Maqāmāt trsl W J Pendergast London Luzac 1915 72 for the Arabic text see idem Maqāmāt Badīʿ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī Ed M ʿAbduh Beirut Dār al-Mashriq 2000 75 Al-Hamadhānīrsquos maqāmāt themselves are a good example of the juxtaposition of prose and poetry common in the literature of the period

3 Al-Bākharzī Dumyat al-qasr wa-ʿusrat ahl al-ʿasr ed M al-Tunjī Beirut Dār al-Jīl 1993 2 966 Ibn al-ʿAmīd according to al-Thaʿālibī is given the title of al-Jāhiz al-akhīr [the last Jāhiz] see al-Thaʿālibī Yatīmat al-dahr fī mahāsin ahl al-ʿasr ed M M ʿAbd al-Hamīd Cairo Matbaʿat al-Sāwī 1934 3 185 and in later sources he is called al-Jāhiz al-thānī [the second Jāhiz] see Ibn Khallikān Wafayāt al-aʿyān wa-anbāʾ abnāʾ al-zamān ed I ʿAbbās Beirut Dār Sādir 1968 5 104 al-Dhahabī Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ eds Sh al-Arnāʾūt amp M N Al-ʿAraqsūsī Beirut Muʾassasat al-Risāla 1990-1992 16 137 Mahmūd b ʿAzīz al-ʿĀrid al-Khwārizmī was given the same title al-Jāhiz al-thānī by al-Zamakhsharī see Yāqūt al-Hamawī Muʿjam al-udabāʾ Irshād al-arīb ilā maʿrifat al-adīb ed I ʿAbbās Beirut Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī 1993 2687 Al-Hamadhānī moreover in al-maqāma al-Jāhiziyya says in the words of Iskandarī Yā qawmu li-kulli ʿamalin rijāl wa-li-kulli maqāmin maqāl wa-li-kulli dārin sukkān wa-li-kulli zamānin Jāhiz [O people every work hath its men every situation its saying every house its occupants and every age its Jāhiz] see al-Hamadhānī 75 Al-Hamadhānī prob-ably was referring to himself as the Jāhiz of his own age after Ibn al-ʿAmīd Nevertheless the sobriquet al-Jāhiz indicates a lofty rank among prose writers and does not necessarily imply the adoption of his literary patterns by those who were compared to him For example Abū Zayd al-Balkhī (d 319931) was called Jāhiz Khurāsān [The Jāhiz of Khurāsān] for his wide range of knowledge see al-Tawhīdī al-Basāʾir wa-l-dhakhāʾir ed W al-Qādī Beirut Dār Sādir 1988 8 66 and similarly al-Thaʿālibī for al-Bākharzī is the Jāhiz of Nishāpūr

B Orfali Journal of Arabic Literature 40 (2009) 273-318 275

22) Sihr al-balāgha (see 23) and al-Iqtibās min al-Qurʾān (see 9)4 As for his poetic talent his surviving poetry displays almost all of the main aghrād (the-matic intentionsgenres) of his time5 His contributions to the fields of Ara-bic lexicography and philology presented in his Fiqh al-lugha (see 7 55) and Thimār al-qulūb (see 28) enjoyed wide circulation as is evident from numer-ous surviving manuscripts and later abridgments of these two works He was also a literary critic whose opinions are preserved in commentaries scattered throughout his various books6

Today al-Thaʿālibī is best known as an anthologist of Arabic literature7 His anthologies whether multi- or mono-thematic are characterized by a systematic dimension in which he establishes the plan and purpose of the work in the introduction In these diverse works al-Thaʿālibī includes literary material suitable for quoting in private and official correspondence and gives equal attention to prose and poetry as well as their various combinations The repertoire of such texts is more or less fixed and is usually perceived as lacking originality However as modern scholarship has begun to recognize the originality of a particular work exists precisely in the choice and arrangement

4 A thorough study of al-Thaʿālibīrsquos prose was prepared by al-Jādir based on al-Thaʿālibīrsquos muqaddimāt entries on poets from Yatīmat al-dahr and various other works In general al-Jādir concentrates on al-Thaʿālibīrsquos technique in hall al-nazm [prosification lit untying the poetry] in his Nathr al-nazm wa-hall al-ʿaqd (see no 22) and his use of badīʿ in general See al-Jādir al-Thaʿālibī 301-33 Although al-Thaʿālibī implements an artistic style in his muqaddimāt and anthology writing he seems to have used another less ornamental style in his akhbār and his-torical writing due to the different nature of these two genres A comprehensive study of al-Thaʿālibīrsquos prose however is still lacking To conduct such a study one would need first to determine the authenticity of some of his works Most important in this regard is the history on Persian kings attributed to him Taʾrīkh ghurar al-siyar The problem of authorship extends to al-Thaʿālibīrsquos authentic works for in several of them al-Thaʿālibī does not state whether he is quoting or composing original prose

5 B Orfali ldquoAn Addendum to the Dīwān of Abū Mansūr al-Taʿālibīrdquo Arabica 56 (2009) 440-449

6 See for al-Thaʿālibīrsquos literary opinions and theory Hasan I al-Ahmad Abʿād al-nass al-naqdī ʿinda al-Thaʿālibī Damascus al-Hayʾa al-ʿĀmma al-Sūriyya li-l-Kitāb 2007 Shukrī Faysal Manāhij al-dirāsa al-adabiyya Cairo Matbaʿat Dār al-Hanāʾ 1953 170ff Muhammad Mandūr al-Naqd al-manhajī ʿinda l-ʿarab Cairo Dār Nahdat Misr nd 303ff Ihsān ʿAbbās Taʾrīkh al-naqd al-adabī ʿinda l-ʿarab Beirut Dār Sādir 1971 375ff Muhammad Zaghlūl Sallām Taʾrīkh al-naqd al-adabī min al-qarn al-khāmis ila-l-ʿāshir al-hijrī Cairo Dār al-Maʿārif nd 41ff al-Jādir al-Thaʿālibī 139ff

7 A good preliminary survey of adab anthologies in Arabic literature including the Post-Mongol period is presented by A Hamori and T Bauer ldquoAnthologiesrdquo EI 3 (online) For an excellent detailed discussion of anthologies from the Mamlūk period see T Bauer ldquoLiterarische Anthologien der Mamlukenzeitrdquo in Die Mamluken Studien zu ihrer Geschichte und Kultur Eds S Conermann and A Pistor-Hatam Hamburg EB-Verlag 2003 71-122


of these reproduced texts and the choice of material reveals the particular interests of the compiler8

Perhaps al-Thaʿālibīrsquos most important contribution to Arabic literature is his activity as a literary historianmdashas reflected in his two celebrated antholo-gies Yatīmat al-dahr (see 29) and its sequel Tatimmat al-Yatīma (see 26) The originality of these two anthologies lies in that they deal exclusively with contemporary literature and that they categorize this literature not chronologically or thematically but based on geographical region They thereby influenced the subsequent development of the genre of Arabic liter-ary anthology

Al-Thaʿālibī is clearly a prolific writer although his bibliography presents numerous problems of false attribution and duplication These problems are not always the copyistsrsquo fault but sometimes result from al-Thaʿālibīrsquos manner of writingmdashmainly the reworking of his works a literarysocial issue that deserves some attention

To justify the continuous re-editing of his Yatīmat al-dahr al-Thaʿālibī quotes the following wise saying in his preface

ه ال يكتب كتابا فيبيت عنده ليلة إال أحب في غدها أن يزيد فيه إن أول ما يبدو من ضعف ابن آدم أنة أو ينقص منه هذا في ليلة واحدة فكيف في سنني عد

The first weakness that appears in man is that he does not write a book and sleep over it without desiring on the following day to extend or abridge it and this is only in one night so what if it were several years9

The above quotation faithfully describes al-Thaʿālibīrsquos scholarly attitude A book for al-Thaʿālibī is a work in progress and its periodical publications are necessary to satisfy a ldquoneedrdquo [hāja]10 The circulation of a work however does not prevent the author from re-editing rededicating and even renaming it In some instances as in the Yatīmat al-dahr there is a final version and only this is put into circulation although one or more previous versions had been

8 See ʿAbdallah Cheikh-Moussa ldquoLrsquohistorien et la liteacuterature arabe meacutedieacutevalerdquo Arabica 43 (1996) 152-188 Heidy Toelle and Katia Zacharia ldquoPour une relecture des textes litteacuteraires ara-bes eacuteleacutements de reacuteflexionrdquo Arabica 46 (1999) 523-540 S Leder ldquoConventions of Fictional Narration in Learned Literaturerdquo in Story-telling in the Framework of Non-fictional Arabic Liter-ature ed Stefen Leder Wiesbaden Harrassowitz 1998 34-60 idem ldquoAuthorship and Trans-mission in Unauthored Literature the Akhbār of al-Haytham ibn ʿAdīrdquo Oriens 31 (1988) 61-81 H Kilpatrick ldquoA Genre in Classical Arabic The Adab Encyclopediardquo in Union Euro-peacuteenne des Arabisants et Islamisants 10th Congress Edinburgh September 1980 Proceedings ed Robert Hillenbrand Edinburgh 1982 34-42

9 Yatīma 1 510 Ibid


widely circulated and copied as al-Thaʿālibī mentions Before reaching this officially published version the work had passed through a long history of editing which al-Thaʿālibī thus describes

يت لعمل ذلك في سنة أربع ومثانني وثلثمائة والعمر في إقباله والشباب مبائه فافتتحته وقد كنت تصدوالرتب األخطار ذوي إىل األدب أهل به ب يتقر ما مجرى اه إي مجريا الوزراء بعض باسم ة عليه حصلت من أفواه الرواة ورأيتين أحاضر بأخوات كثرية ملا فيه وقعت بأخرة إيل وزيادات جم لدي فجعلت أبنيه وأنقضه وأزيده وأنقصه وأمحوه وأثبته وأنتسخه ثم أنسخه ورمبا أفتتحه

السن عصر أدركت أن إىل تنجز وال وتعد تحجز واأليام ه أستتم فال وأنتصفه أختتمه وال األخرية النسخة هذه تقرير في واستمررت الدهر ظلمة من ملعة فاختلست واحلنكة دت تبويبها وأعدت ترصيفها وأحكمت ت ترتيبها وجد وتحريرها من بني النسخ الكثرية بعد أن غري

تأليفها I had set out to accomplish this in the year three hundred and eighty four when [my] age was still in its outset and youth was still fresh I opened it with the name of a vizier following the convention of the people of adab who do this to find favor with the people of prestige and rank And I recently found myself presented with many similar reports to those in it and plentiful additions that I obtained from the mouths of transmitters So I started to build and demolish enlarge and reduce erase and confirm copy then abrogate and sometimes I start and do not finish reach the middle and not the end while days are blocking the way promising without fulfilling until I reached the age of maturity and experi-ence So I snatched a spark from within the darkness of age so I continued in composing and revising this last version among the many versions after I changed its order renewed its division into chapters redid its arrangement and tightened its composition 11

The main reason for the reworking of Yatīmat al-dahr seems to be the avail-ability of new literary material that necessitated either the inclusion of more entries or the modification of old ones However the reasons for reworking a certain work differ from one title to another and from one author to another and the ldquoneedrdquo that al-Thaʿālibī mentions could very well be a material need as well as an intellectual one

Several of the multiple titles of works in al-Thaʿālibīrsquos bibliography result from such reworkings or rededications as al-Thaʿālibī himself tells us in his prefaces12 In these prefaces al-Thaʿālibī usually spells out the dedicatee using

11 Ibid 1 5-612 A more detailed discussion of al-Thaʿālibīrsquos manner of writing the motives behind his

compilation and the rewriting of his own works is presented in B Orfali ldquoThe Art of the Muqaddima in the Works of Abū Mansūr al-Thaʿālibī (d 4291039)rdquo in The Weaving of Words


his titulature or name and sometimes both These titles are helpful in reveal-ing the identity of the dedicatee albeit not always with accuracy since some-times they are honorary phrases of al-Thaʿālibīrsquos own invention and hence not to be found in the primary sources of the period Moreover in several cases al-Thaʿālibī is not consistent in using an honorary title as he often bestows the same title on several patrons or uses a different title to praise the same dedicatee in various works dedicated to him Al-Thaʿālibīrsquos convoluted travel route and the diversity of his patrons and their professions often complicates matters further especially since his travel route often is reconstructed from the dedications of his works This difficulty has left its impact on al-Thaʿālibīrsquos bibliography since one cannot always determine the exact identity of the dedicatee and hence the chronology of the work or sometimes its very attri-bution to al-Thaʿālibī

Al-Thaʿālibīrsquos oeuvre is all in Arabic In fact other than the meager refer-ences to bilingual poets in Yatīmat al-dahr and Tatimmat al-Yatīma al-Thaʿālibī seems indifferent to the newly rising Persian poetry in the eastern Islamic world Many of his works survive only in manuscript while more than thirty authentic works have been published In addition to the authen-tic published works there are a number of other published works attributed to him that lack scholarly consensus as to their authenticity

The first detailed list of al-Thaʿālibīrsquos books was given by al-Kalāʿī (d sixthtwelfth century) and includes twenty-one works13 Al-Safadī (d 7641363) provides the longest list available from primary sources amounting to seventy works with some duplications and false attributions14 Both Ibn Shākir al-Kutubī (d 7641363) and Ibn Qādī Shuhba (d 8511447) reproduce it15 Hājjī Khalīfa lists around twenty books in different places of his Kashf al-zunūn16 In modern scholarship Jurjī Zaydān mentions thirty-six works describing the published ones and indicating the locations of those in manu-script albeit not with exact references17 The editors of Latāʾif al-maʿārif list ninety-three works18 while ʿAbd al-Fattāh al-Hulw counts sixty-eight works

Approaches to Classical Arabic Prose eds L Behzadi amp V Behmardi Beirut Orient Institute 2009 181-202

13 Al-Kalāʿī Ihkām sanʿat al-kalām ed M R al-Dāya Beirut ʿĀlam al-Kutub 1985 224-514 See al-Safadī al-Wāfī bi-l-wafayāt eds A al-Arnāʾūt amp T Mustafā Beirut Dār Ihyāʾ

al-Turāth al-ʿArabī 2000 21 194-915 See al-Kutubī ʿUyūn al-tawārīkh MS Zāhiriyya 45 13 179b-181b Ibn Qādī Shuhba

Tabaqāt al-nuhāt wa-l-lughawiyyīn MS al-Zāhiriyya 438 2 387-816 Hājjī Khalīfa Kashf al-zunūn ʿan asmāʾ al-kutub wa-l-funūn Baghdad Matbaʿat

al-Muthannā 1972 14 120 238 483 523 981 985 1061 1203 1288 1445 1488 1535 1554 1582 1583 1911 1989 2049

17 Jurjī Zaydān Taʾrīkh ādāb al-lugha al-ʿarabiyya Beirut Maktabat al-Hayāt 1967 2 59518 See intro of al-Thaʿālibī Latāʾif al-maʿārif eds I al-Abyārī amp H K al-Sayrafī Cairo Dār


basing his list on that of al-Kutubī19 Brockelmann discusses fifty-one works20 while Sezgin lists locations of only twelve manuscripts21 Al-Ziriklī enumer-ates thirty-three published and unpublished works22 Everett Rowson describes the content of a number of al-Thaʿālibīrsquos authentic works23 A valu-able tally is that of Qasim al-Samarrai who includes thirty-eight authentic works arranged according to their dedication with locations of the manu-scripts24 Y ʿA al-Madgharī in his introduction to Mirʾāt al-murūʾāt counts 128 works25 Hilāl Nājī collects more than one list in his introductions to editions of al-Thaʿālibīrsquos works the most extensive of which includes 109 titles26 The best survey of al-Thaʿālibīrsquos works which includes a discussion of bibliographical problems and manuscript locations has been compiled by M ʿ A al-Jādir in which the author attempts to reconstruct their chronology27 including a later update with new manuscripts and editions28 Since then more manuscripts of al-Thaʿālibīrsquos works have been discovered andor pub-lished and many published works have been re-edited

In what follows I will present an updated list of al-Thaʿālibīrsquos works based on these earlier lists and newly available editions and manuscripts For the sake of brevity I omit manuscripts of published works for which one can refer to al-Jādirrsquos list even if it is not comprehensive The various titles in the headings refer to the different titles of the same work in primary sources The numbers in parentheses following the titles indicate al-Jādirrsquos reconstruction

Ihyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya 1960 10-17 The editors list eighy-six works that they claim are in al-Safadīrsquos list then add seven works that they claim al-Safadī missed In fact most of the titles they add are in al-Safadīrsquos list under either the same or a different title The manuscript of al-Wāfī bi-l-wafayāt that the editors were using must be one with additions by a later scribe or by al-Safadī himself for most of al-Wāfī rsquos manuscripts include only seventy works This postu-late is further attested by al-Kutubīrsquos list that copies seventy works from that of al-Safadīrsquos

19 See intro of al-Thaʿālibī al-Tamthīl wa-l-muhādara ed ʿA al-Hulw Cairo Dār Ihyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya 1961 14-20

20 See Brockelmann GAL I 284-6 GAL SI 499-50221 See Sezgin GAS VIII 231-23622 Al-Ziriklī al-Aʿlām Beirut Dār al-ʿIlm li-l-Malāyīn 1992 4 31123 E Rowson ldquoal-Thaʿālibī Abū Mansūr ʿAbd al-Malik b Muhammad b Ismāʿīlrdquo EI2 X

426-42724 See Q al-Samarrai ldquoSome biographical notes on al-Thaʿālibīrdquo Bibliotheca Orientalis xxxii

(1975) 175-8625 See introduction of al-Thaʿālibī Mirʾāt al-murūʾāt ed Y al-Madgharī Beirut Dār

Lubnān 2003 30-12826 See intro of al-Thaʿālibī al-Anīs fī ghurar al-tajnīs ed H Nājī Beirut ʿĀlam al-Kutub

199627 Al-Jādir al-Thaʿālibī nāqidan wa-adīban Beirut Dār al-Nidāl 1991 58-13228 See al-Jādir ldquoDirāsa tawthīqiyya li-muʾallafāt al-Thaʿālibīrdquo Majallat Maʿhad al-Buhūth wa

l-Dirāsāt al-ʿArabiyya 12 (14031983) This article was reprinted in Dirāsāt tawthīqiyya wa-tahqīqiyya fī masādir al-turāth Baghdad Jāmiʿat Baghdād 1990 382-454


of their chronological order I have marked works identified by al-Safadī with an asterisk () and those identified by al-Samarrai with a double asterisk ()29

I Printed Authentic Works

1- Abū l-Tayyib al-Mutanabbī mā lahu wa-mā ʿalayhi = Abū l-Tayyib al-Mutanabbī wa-akhbāruhu

This is the fifth section [bāb] of the first volume [mujallad] of Yatīmat al-dahr Al-Thaʿālibī however intended it as a separate book30

Ed Friedrich Dieterici Mutanabbi und Seifuddaula aus der Edelperle des Tsaacirclibi nach Gothaer und Pariser Handschriften Leipzig Fr Chr Wilh Vogel 1847 Cairo Matbaʿat al-Jamāliyya 1915 Cairo al-Maktaba al-Tijāriyya al-Kubrā 1925 Cairo Matbaʿat Hijāzī 1948 Tunis Dār al-Maʿārif 1997 (repr 2000)

2- Ādāb al-mulūk = Sirāj al-mulūk 31 = al-Mulūkī = al-Khwārizmiyyāt (13) ()

The work is an example of the mirror of princes genre and consists of ten chapters on32 (1) the need for kings and the duty of obedience to them (2) proverbs on kings (3) sayings counsels and tawqīʿāt [signatory notesapostilles] of kings (4) governance [siyāsa] (5) the manners and customs of kings (6) the selecting of viziers judges secretaries physicians musicians

29 I thank Everett Rowson for sharing his notes on al-Thaʿālibīrsquos bibliography which saved me from a number of errors

30 See Yatīma 1 24031 The British Museum MS 6368 under the title Sirāj al-mulūk mentioned in Brockelmann

GAL SI 502 is identical with Ādāb al-mulūk32 Such books often consist of ten chapters On this idea see Louise Marlow ldquoThe Way of

Viziers and the Lamp of Commanders (Minhāj al-wuzarāʾ wa-sirāj al-umarāʾ) of Ahmad al-Isfahbadhī and the Literary and Political Culture of Early Fourteenth-Century Iranrdquo in Writ-ers and Rulers Perspectives on Their Relationship from Abbasid to Safavid Times eds B Gruendler and L Marlow Wiesbaden Reichert 2004 169-93 For the genre of ldquomirrors for princesrdquo see Dimitri Gutus ldquoEthische Schriften im Islamrdquo in Orientalisches Mittelalter ed W Heinrichs Wiesbaden AULA-Verlag 1990 346-65 For the Arabic tradition see idem Greek Wisdom Literature in Arabic Translation A Study of the Graeco-Arabic Gnomologia New Haven Ameri-can Oriental Society 1975 idem ldquoClassical Arabic Wisdom Literature Nature and Scoperdquo Journal of the American Oriental Society 101 49-86 and the literature listed there


and others (7) On the bad manners of kings (8) warfare and the army (9) the conduct of kings and (10) the service to kings It is dedicated to the penultimate Maʾmūnid Khwārizmshāh Maʾmūn b Maʾmūn (r 390-4071000-17)33 in the introduction (see 6 11 14 22 33 56)34

Ed J al-ʿAtiyya Beirut Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī 1990

3- Ahsan mā samiʿtu = Ahsan mā samiʿtu min al-shiʿr wa-l-nathr = al-Laʾālī wa-l-durar (18) () ()

In this later work al-Thaʿālibī extracts his particular favorites from the mate-rial he had collected Emphasis is on Modern [muhdath] and Eastern poets Based on two lines in the book by Abū l-Fath al-Bustī35 (d 4001010) dedi-cated to al-muʾallaf lahu [the dedicatee] al-Jādir suggests that al-Thaʿālibī dedicated the work to Abū ʿAbdallāh Muhammad b Hāmid36 when leaving al-Jurjāniyya The same two lines are attributed in al-Yatīma to al-Bustī in praise of Abū ʿAbdallāh Muhammad b Hāmid (see 36)37 Al-Samarrai points out that al-Thaʿālibī mentions in al-Yatīma that he wrote Ahsan mā samiʿtu at the request of his friend Abū l-Fath al-Bustī38 Hilāl Nājī argues convincingly that the work is an abridgement of a larger work entitled Ahāsin al-mahāsin which survives in several manuscripts (see 52) Nājī claims without offering proof that the abridgment was prepared by a later author

Ed M S ʿAnbar Cairo Matbaʿat al-Jumhūr 1324 [1906-7] (repr 1991) ed and trsl O Rescher Leipzig In Kommission bei O Harrassowiz 1916 Cairo al-Maktaba al-Mahmūdiyya 1925 ed A ʿA F Tammām Beirut Muʾassasat al-Kutub al-Thaqāfiyya 1989 ed ʿA A ʿA Muhannā Beirut Dār al-Fikr al-Lubnānī 1990 (entitled al-Laʾālī wa-l-durar) ed M I Salīm Cairo Dār al-Talīʿa 1992 ed A ʿA F Tammām Cairo Dār al-Talāʾiʿ 1994 ed A Butrus Tripoli Al-Muʾassasa al-Hadītha li-l-Kitāb 1999 ed Kh ʿI

33 Abū l-ʿAbbās Maʾmūn b Maʾmūn was the penultimate Maʾmūnid Al-Thaʿālibī dedicated several of his books to him See C E Bosworth ldquoKhwārazm-shāhsrdquo EI 2 IV 1068b-9b

34 See Ādāb al-mulūk ed J ʿAtiyya Beirut Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī 1990 2935 Arabic poet of Persian origin and a native of Bust where he was raised and educated He

was a friend of al-Thaʿālibī from the time of their first meeting in Nīshāpūr see his biography in J W Fuumlck ldquoal-Bustī Abursquo l-Fath b Muhammadrdquo EI 2 I 1348b and the sources listed there

36 A vizier of Khwārizmshāh and one of the sources of al-Yatīma see his biography in Yatīma 4 294

37 See al-Jādir al-Thaʿālibī 8438 See al-Samarrai 186


Mansūr Beirut Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya 2000 ed M Zaynahum Cairo al-Dār al-Thaqāfiyya 2006

4- Ajnās al-tajnīs = al-Mutashābih = al-Mutashābih lafzan wa-khattan = Tafsīl al-siʿr fī tafdīl al-shiʿr (5) () ()

A selection of sayings illustrating paronomasia (jinās) with examples of mod-ern and contemporary poetry and prose The work is dedicated to the Sāmānid governor and founder of the Ghaznavid dynasty brother of Sultān Mahmūd al-amīr al-ajall al-sayyid Abū l-Muzaffar Nasr b Nāsir al-Dīn [Sebuumlktigin] (d 4121021) (see 9 15 30 34) in the introduction39 40 Madgharī lists the section of MS Hekimoglu 946-1 entitled Tafsīl al-siʿr as a separate work while it is in fact part of Ajnās al-tajnīs

Ed M Shāfī in Damīma of Oriental College Magazine Lahore May 1950 (entitled al-Mutashābih) ed I al-Sāmarrāʾī in Majallat Kulliyyat al-Ādāb Baghdad Jāmiʿat Baghdād 10 (1967) 6-33 (entitled al-Mutashābih) (repr Beirut al-Dār al-ʿArabiyya 1999 Baghdad Matbaʿat al-Hukūma 1967) ed M ʿA al-Jādir Beirut ʿĀlam al-Kutub 1997 (repr Baghdad Dār al-Shuʾūn al-Thaqāfiyya 1998)

5- al-Anīs fī ghurar al-tajnīs (57) ()41

A collection of sayings on the subject of paronomasia dedicated to al-shaykh al-sayyid al-amīr42 Hilāl Najī identifies him with al-Mīkālī (see 6 7 15 20 23 28 92)43 whom al-Thaʿālibī calls thus in Thimār al-qulūb

39 Sultān Mahmūd gave him according to al-ʿUtbī his own place as commander of the army in the province of Khurāsān See al-ʿUtbī Al-Yamīnī fī sharh akhbār al-sultān yamīn al-dawla wa-amīn al-milla Mahmūd al-Ghaznawī ed I Dh al-Thāmirī Beirut Dār al-Talīʿa 2004 175 see also Bosworth The Ghaznavids 39-44

40 See al-Thaʿālibī Ajnās al-tajnīs ed M ʿA al-Jādir Beirut ʿĀlam al-Kutub 1997 2541 Al-Jādir labels this work as lost (mafqūd) in his first list of al-Thaʿālibīrsquos works see al-Jādir

al-Thaʿālibī 11742 al-Anīs fī ghurar al-tajnīs 43 43 Abū l-Fadl ʿUbaydallāh al-Mīkālī belonged to the well-known and most influential

Nīshāpūr families He is one of the main sources and patrons of al-Thaʿālibī who dedicated more than five works to him Al-Mīkālī was a theologian traditionalist poet a man of adab and according to al-Husrī raʾīs of Nīshāpūr See his biography in Yatīma 4 326 al-Husrī Zahr al-ādāb wa-thimār al-albāb ed ʿA M al-Bajāwī Cairo al-Bābī al-Halabī 1970 1 126 al-Bākharzī Dumyat al-qasr wa-ʿusrat ahl al-ʿasr ed M al-Tunjī Beirut Dār al-Jīl 1993 2 984 al-Kutubī 2 52 C E Bosworth ldquoMīkālīsrdquo EI 2 VII 25b-26b and idem The Ghaznavids Their Empire in Afghanistan and Eastern Iran 994 1040 Edinburgh University Press 1963 176ff For his relation with al-Thaʿālibī see al-Samarrai 177-9


(see 28)44 However al-Mīkālī seems to be one of the sources for the work al-Thaʿālibī used this title for several rulers

Ed H Nājī Majallat al-Majmaʿ al-ʿIlmī al-ʿIrāqī 33 (1982) 369-80 (repr Beirut ʿĀlam al-Kutub 1996)

6- Bard al-akbād fī-l-aʿdād = al-Aʿdād (30) () ()

This is a five-chapter selection of prose and poetry dealing with numerical divisions The dedicatee is referred to as Mawlānā in the introduction Al-Jādir identifies him as the Ghaznavid official troop reviewer al-Hamdūnīal-Hamdawī (see 13 15 17 18 23 60)45 46 Al-Samarrai argues for al-Mīkālī (see 5 7 15 20 23 28 92) or possibly al-Maʾmūnī (see 2 11 14 22 33 56)47

In Majmūʿat khams rasāʾil Istanbul 13011883-4 (repr 13251907 Najaf 1970) ed Ihsān Dhannūn al-Thāmirī Beirut Dār Ibn Hazm 2006

7- Fiqh al-lugha wa-sirr al-ʿarabiyya = Sirr al-adab fī majārī kalām al-ʿArab = Shams al-adab = al-Shams = Maʿrifat al-rutab fī-mā warada min kalām al-ʿArab = al-Muntakhab min sunan al-ʿArab (28) () ()

The first half of this work (see also no 55) is lexicographical grouping vocab-ulary into thirty semantic chapters while the second half treats a variety of grammatical and lexicographical topics Occasionally the different titles of the work refer to its different sections The work enjoyed instant fame as is evident from the number of early surviving manuscripts and has been

44 See al-Thaʿālibī Thimār al-qulūb fī-l-mudāf wa-l-mansūb ed M A Ibrāhīm Cairo Dār Nahdat Misr 1965 419

45 Al-Thaʿālibī dedicates a number of works to this individual Al-Jādir and almost all of the editors of al-Thaʿālibī use al-Hamdūnī al-Samarrai however suggests al-Hamdawī while Bos-worth uses both nisbas He was an ʿārid [trooparmy reviewer] in the Khurāsān province According to al-ʿImād al-Isfahānī he was the ʿamīd of Khurāsān for Sultān Mahmūd of Ghazna (d 4211030) After Mahmūdrsquos death he acted as vizier to his successor Muhammad and received further positions during the reign of Masʿūd See al-Thaʿālibī Tatimmat al-Yatīma ed M M Qumayha Beirut Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya 1983 248 Ibn al-Athīr al-Kāmil fī l-Taʾrīkh ed A ʿA al-Qādī Beirut Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya 1995

9 379 381 428-9 435-6 446 458 al-Samarrai 182-3 Bosworth The Ghaznavids 7146 See al-Jādir al-Thaʿālibī 105 idem ldquoDirāsardquo 400-147 See al-Samarrai 178


versified as Nazm fiqh al-lugha48 The book is dedicated in its introduction to al-amīr al-sayyid al-awhad Abū l-Fadl ʿUbaydallāh b Ahmad al-Mīkālī (d 4361044) (see 5 6 15 20 23 28 92)49

Tehran Karakhānah-i Qulī Khan 1855 (entitled Sirr al-adab fī majārī kalām al-ʿArab) Cairo Matbaʿat al-Hajar al-Nayyira al-Fākhira 1284 [1867] Cairo Matbaʿat al-Madāris al-Malakiyya 1880 (repr 1900 1994) ed L Cheikho Beirut Matbaʿat al-Ābāʾ al-Yasūʿiyyīn 1885 (repr 1903) ed R Dahdāh Paris Rochaiumld Dahdah 1861 Cairo al-Maktaba al-Adabiyya 1899 Beirut Dār Maktabat al-Hayāt 1901 (repr 1980) Cairo al-Matbaʿa al-ʿUmūmiyya 1901 Cairo Matbaʿat al-Saʿāda 1907 ed M al-Saqqā I al-Abyārī and ʿA Shalabī Cairo Matbaʿat al-Halabī 1938 Cairo al-Bābī al-Halabī 1954 Cairo al-Maktaba al-Tijāriyya al-Kubrā 1964 Cairo al-Matbaʿa al-Hajariyya 1967 Lībiyā al-Dār al-ʿArabiyya li-l-Kitāb 1981 ed S Bawwāb Damascus Dār al-Hikma 1984 ed F Muhammad and I Yaʿqūb Beirut Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī 1993 Beirut Maktabat Lubnān 1997 ed Kh Fahmī and R ʿAbd al-Tawwāb Cairo Maktabat al-Khānjī 1998 ed A Nasīb Beirut Dār al-Jīl 1998 ed Y Ayyūbī Beirut al-Maktaba al-ʿAsriyya 1999 (repr 2000 2003) ed R ʿAbd al-Tawwāb and Kh Fahmī Cairo Maktabat al-Khānjī 1999 cmt D Saqqāl Beirut Dār al-Fikr al-ʿArabī 1999 ed ʿU al-Tabbāʿ Beirut Dār al-Arqam 1999 ed H Tammās Damascus Dār al-Maʿrifa 2004

8- Al-I ʿ jāz wa-l-ījāz = al-Ījāz wa-l-iʿjāz = K Ghurar al-balāgha fī-l-nazm wa-l-nathr = K Ghurar al-balāgha wa-turaf al-barāʿa (25) (90) () ()

This work combines prose and poetry on the theme of exhibiting concision It consists of ten chapters beginning with examples of rhetorical figures in the Qurʾān and hadīth followed by prose selections and anecdotes from a wide range of literary figures The second half balances these prose selec-tions with verses by major poets from different eras The work is dedicated to al-Qādī al-Jalīl al-Sayyid identified in the tenth section of the book as Mansūr b Muhammad al-Azdī al-Harawī50 and in one manuscript as ldquoal-makhdūm bi-hādhā l-kitābrdquo [served by this book]51 Based on this

48 Parts of this work survive within al-Suyūtī al-Muzhir fī ʿulūm al-lugha wa-anwāʿihā ed M A Ibrāhīm et al Cairo al-Bābī al-Halabī 1958 123 450

49 See al-Thaʿālibī Fiqh al-lugha wa-sirr al-ʿarabiyya ed Y al-Ayyūbī Beirut al-Maktaba al-ʿAsriyya 2000 33

50 Al-Thaʿālibī mentions that they met while both of them were away from their homes and became close friends see Tatimma 233

51 Al-Thaʿālibī al-Iʿjāz wa-l-ījāz ed M Sālih Damascus Dār al-Bashāʾir 2004 308


dedication al-Jādir dates the book to 4121021 when al-Thaʿālibī returned to Nīshāpūr from Ghazna52

In Khams Rasāʾil Istanbul 1301 [1883-4] ed I Āsaf Cairo al-Matbaʿa ʿUmūmiyya 1897 Baghdad Maktabat Dār al-Bayān 1972 Beirut Dār Saʿb 1980 Beirut Dār al-Rāʾid al-ʿArabī 1983 Beirut Dār al-Ghusūn 1985 ed M al-Tunjī Beirut Dār al-Nafāʾis 1992 ed Q R Sālih Bagh-dad Wizārat al-ThaqāfamdashDār al-Shuʾūn al-Thaqāfiyya 1998 (under K Ghu-rar al-balāgha fī-l-nazm wa-l-nathr) ed M I Salīm Cairo Maktabat al-Qurʾān 1999 ed I Sālih Damascus Dār al-Bashāʾir 2001 (repr 2004) Cairo al-Dār al-Thaqāfiyya 2005 (repr 2006) trsl O Petit La beauteacute est le gibier des cœurs Paris Sindbad 1987

9- Al-Iqtibās min al-Qurʾān (6) () ()

The book treats the use of a Qurʾānic phrase (or a variation on such a phrase) without being explicit about its provenance Some of its twenty-five chapters do not contribute to the general theme of the book but deal with the subject of rhetorical figures in the Qurʾān or the mode of behavior of the Prophet Muhammad The last two chapters could have been added by later scribes because the title of the 23rd chapter fī funūn mukhtalifat al-tartīb is the title of the concluding chapter of several of al-Thaʿālibīrsquos works The work is dedi-cated to Sāhib al-jaysh Abū l-Muzaffar Nasr b Nāsir al-Dīn [Sebuumlktigin] (see 4 15 30 34)53

Ed I M al-Saffār Baghdad Dār al-Hurriyya li-l-Tibāʿa 1975 ed I M al-Saffār amp M M Bahjat Al-Mansura Dār al-Wafāʾ 1992 (repr Cairo Dār al-Wafāʾ 1998) ed I M al-Saffār ʿAmmān Jidārā li-l-Kitāb al-ʿĀlamī 2008

10- Khāss al-khāss (34) () ()

This booklet is an epitome of a number of al-Thaʿālibīrsquos earlier works Its seven chapters contain prose and poetry including that of al-Thaʿālibī in addition to excerpts from Qurʾān hadīth and proverbs It is dedicated to

52 Al-Jādir al-Thaʿālibī 96 idem ldquoDirāsardquo 40053 Al-Thaʿālibī al-Iqtibās min al-Qurʾān ed I al-Saffār amp M M Bahjat Al-Mansura Dār

al-Wafāʾ 1992 37


al-Shaykh Abū l-Hasan Musāfir b al-Hasan [al-ʿĀrid]54 when he arrived at Nīshāpūr from Ghazna with Sultān Masʿūd in 424103355

Tūnis Matbaʿat al-Dawla al-Tūnisiyya 1876 ed M al-Samkarī Cairo Matbaʿat al-Saʿāda 1908 Tūnis Matbaʿat al-Dawla al-Tūnisiyya 1876 intro H al-Amīn Beirut Dār Maktabat al-Hayāt 1966 (repr 1980 missing intro) ed S al-Naqwī Hydarabad Matbūʿāt Majlis Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmāniyya 1984 ed M al-Jinān Beirut Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya 1994 ed Muhammad Zaynahum Cairo al-Dār al-Thaqāfiyya li-l-Nashr 2008

11- Al-Kināya wa-l-taʿrīd = al-Nihāya fī l-kināya = al-Nihāya fī fann al-kināya = al-Kunā (12) () ()

The title is a compilation of quotations from the Qurʾān prose verse and hadīth that contain allusions and metonymies It was first compiled in 4001009 and then revised and rededicated in the introduction to the penul-timate Khwārizmshāh Abū l-ʿAbbās Maʾmūn b Maʾmūn in 4071016 (see 2 6 14 22 33 56)56

In Arbaʿ rasāʾil muntakhaba min muʾallafāt al-ʿallāma al-Thaʿālibī Istanbul 1301 [1883-4] ed M Amīn Makka al-Matbaʿa al-Mīriyya 1302 [1884]) ed M B al-Naʿsānī al-Halabī Cairo Matbaʿat al-Saʿāda 1908 (together with Abū l-ʿAbbās al-Jurjānī al-Muntakhab min kināyāt al-udabāʾ wa-ishārāt al-bulaghāʾ) in Rasāʾil al-Thaʿālibī ed ʿA Khāqānī Baghdad Maktabat Dār al-Bayān 1972) Beirut Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya 1984 ed M F al-Jabr Damascus Dār al-Hikma 1994 ed F Hawwār Tūnis Dār al-Maʿārif 1995 ed U al-Buhayrī Cairo Maktabat al-Khānjī 1997 ed ʿĀ H Farīd Cairo Dār Qibāʾ 1998 ed M I Salīm Cairo Maktabat Ibn Sīnā 2003 ed F al-Hawwār Baghdad amp Koumlln Manshūrāt al-Jamal 2006

54 He was troop reviewer of the Ghaznavid army in Khurāsān during the sultanate of Masʿūd al-Ghaznavī after the former ʿārid Abū Sahl al-Hamdūnī was made civil governor of Rayy and Jibāl see Tatimma 258 For the office of the ʿārid and his duties see C E Bosworth The Ghaz-navids 71

55 See al-Thaʿālibī Khāss al-khāss ed S al-Naqwī Hydarabad Matbūʿāt Majlis Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmāniyya 1984 1

56 Al-Thaʿālibī K al-Kināya wa-l-taʿrīd aw al-Nihāya fī fann al-kināya ed F al-Hawwār Baghdad amp Koumlln Manshūrāt al-Jamal 2006 25


12- Latāʾif al-maʿārif (20) ()

This work assembles entertaining bits of historical lore into ten chapters It is dedicated to a certain al-Sāhib Abū l-Qāsim57 whom some scholars believe to be al-Sāhib Ibn ʿAbbād (d 385995)58 Al-Jādir refutes this by proving that the book was composed after the vizierrsquos death in 385995 and suggests instead Abū l-Qāsim Mahmūd b Sebuumlktigin (d 4211030)59 whereas Bos-worth and al-Samarrai propose the Ghaznavid vizier Abū l-Qāsim Ahmad b Hasan al-Maymandī (d 4241033)60

Ed P de Jong Leiden Brill 1867 Cairo al-Bābī al-Halabī 1960 ed I al-Abyārī and H K al-Sayrafī Cairo Dār Ihyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya 1960 ed and trsl (Uzbek) Ismatulla Abdullaev Tashkent 1987 (repr Tash-kent A Qodirii nomidagi khalq merosi nashrieumlti 1995) trsl (Persian) ʿAlī Akbar Shahābī Khurāsānī (Mashhad Muʾassasa-i Chāp wa Intishārāt-i Āstān-i Quds-i Radawī 1368 [1989-90] trsl C E Bosworth The Book of Curious and Entertaining Information Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press 1968

13- Latāʾif al-zurafāʾ min tabaqāt al-fudalāʾ = Latāʾif al-sahāba wa-l-tābiʿīn= Latāʾif al-lutf (39) (89) () ()

A twelve-chapter collection of anecdotes about the witticisms and niceties of zurafāʾ [witty charming debonair persons] dedicated in the introduction to al-shaykh al-ʿamīd Abū Sahl al-Hamdūnīal-Hamdawī (see 6 15 17 18 23 60)61

Ed ʿU al-Asʿad Beirut Dār al-Masīra 1980 (under Latāʾif al-lutf ) ed Q al-Samarrai Leiden Brill 1978 (Facsimile) ed ʿA K al-Rajab Beirut al-Dār al-ʿArabiyya 1999

57 See al-Thaʿālibī Latāʾif al-maʿārif 358 See for example E G Brown Literary History of Persia 2 101 intro of al-Tamthīl 5

intro of Thimār 559 Abū l-Qāsim Mahmūd served as the commander of the army in Khurāsān until he became

the amīr of Ghazna after his father in 387997 see his biography in C E Bosworth ldquoMahmūd b Sebuumlktiginrdquo EI 2 VI 64b Al-Jādir al-Thaʿālibī 87-89 idem ldquoDirāsardquo 428-9

60 Abū l-Qāsim Ahmad served as Mahmūd al-Ghaznavīrsquos vizier from 4041013 until 4151020 Masʿūd brought him into power again in 4211030 where he remained until his death see al-Samarrai 185

61 See al-Thaʿālibī Latāʾif al-zurafāʾ ed Q al-Samarrai Leiden Brill 1978 3


14- Lubāb al-ādāb = Sirr al-adab fī majārī kalām al-ʿArab ()

Al-Jādir inspected a manuscript entitled Lubāb al-ādāb in Jāmiʿat Baghdād 1217 and characterized it as a selection from Sihr al-balāgha (see 23)62 Qahtān Rashīd Sālih published a work thus entitled based on four manu-scripts and the characteristic introduction and the parallels with material found in al-Thaʿālibīrsquos other works confirm his authorship The work consists of three parts in thirty chapters The first part is lexicographical and draws heavily on Fiqh al-lugha (see 7) The second and third parts which deal with prose and poetry respectively are arranged according to themes The work is dedicated to the penultimate Maʾmūnid Khwārizmshāh Maʾmūn b Maʾmūn (see 2 6 11 22 33 56)

Tehran 1272 [1855-6] (under Sirr al-adab fī majārī kalām al-ʿarab) ed S Q Rashīd Baghdad Dār al-Shuʾūn al-Thaqāfiyya 1988 ed A H Basaj Beirut Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya 1997 ed S al-Huwwārī Beirut al-Maktaba al-ʿAsriyya 2003

15- Al-Lutf wa-l-latāʾif (33) ()

This work consists of sixteen chapters collecting representation of various professions and is dedicated to mawlāna al-amīr al-sayyid al-Sāhib Al-Jādir identifies him with Abū Sahl al-Hamdūnīal-Hamdawī (see 6 13 17 18 23 60)63 Al-Samarrai suggests al-Mīkālī (see 5 6 7 20 23 28 92) or Nasr b Nāsir al-Dīn Sebuumlktigin (see 4 9 30 34)64

Ed M ʿA al-Jādir al-Kuwayt Maktabat Dār al-ʿArabiyya 1984 (repr Beirut ʿĀlam al-Kutub 1997 ed M ʿA al-Jādir Baghdad Dār al-Shuʾūn al-Thaqāfiyya 2002)

16- Mā jarā bayna l-Mutanabbī wa-Sayf al-Dawla (38)

Edward Van Dyck mentions that the work was edited in Leipzig in 1835 by Gustav Fluumlgel65

62 See al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 42663 Ibid 42964 Al-Samarrai 18665 See Edward Van Dyck Iktifāʾ al-qanūʿ bi-mā huwa matbūʿ Tehran Matbaʿat Behman

1988 272 I was not able to locate this edition


17- Man ghāba ʿanhu l-mutrib = Man aʿwazahu l-mutrib (19) () ()

Al-Thaʿālibī wrote this book later in his life when he was asked to extract his particular favorites from the material he had collected on modern Eastern poets Q al-Samarrai finds in MS Berlin 8333 the dedicatee al-shaykh al-ʿAmīd and suggests that this is al-Hamdūnīal-Hamdawī (see 6 13 15 18 23 60)66 The introduction of the work is identical to the introduction of Ahāsin al-mahāsin (see 52)

Beirut 1831 in Al-Tuhfa al-bahiyya Istanbul 1302 [1884] ed M al-Labābīdī Beirut al-Matbaʿa al-Adabiyya 1309 [1891-2] ed O Rescher Uppsala Almqvist amp Wiksells 1917-8 ed N ʿA Shaʿlān Cairo Maktabat Khānjī 1984 ed ʿA al-Mallūhī Damascus Dār Talās 1987 ed Y A al-Sāmarrāʾī Beirut Maktabat al-Nahda al-ʿArabiyya 1987

18- Mirʾāt al-murūʾāt (32) () ()

This is a collection of anecdotal material under the rubric of murūʾa [perfect virtue] it consists of fifteen chapters each starting with the word murūʾa The title of the dedicatee as given in the introduction is al-sadr al-ajall al-sayyid al-Sāhib akfā l-kufāt Al-Jādir identifies him as Abū Sahl al-Hamdūnī (see 6 13 15 17 23 60) while al-Samarrai suggests Masʿūdrsquos vizier Ahmad b ʿAbd al-Samad67 68 The work was composed after 4211030 the death year of Sultān Mahmūd of Ghazna who is referred to as ldquothe laterdquo [al-Mādī]

Cairo Matbaʿat al-Taraqqī 1898 ed Y ʿ A al-Madgharī Beirut Dār Lubnān 2003 ed M Kh R Yūsuf Beirut Dār Ibn Hazm 2004 ed W b A al-Husayn Leeds Majallat al-Hikma 2004 ed I Dh al-Thāmirī Amman Dār Ward 2007

19- Al-Mubhij (4) () ()

This collection of rhymed prose arranged by topic and intended to inspire prose stylists is dedicated to Qābūs b Wushmagīr (d 4031012-13) the fourth ruler of the Ziyārid dynasty who achieved great contemporary renown

66 Al-Samarrai 18667 He became Masʿūdrsquos vizier after al-Maymandī in 4241033 He died after 4351043 while

still serving Masʿūdrsquos sonmdashMawdūd see C E Bosworth The Ghaznavids 182 24268 Al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 432 al-Samarrai 185


as a scholar and poet in both Arabic and Persian69 This occurred on his first visit to Jurjān before 390999 Later al-Thaʿālibī reworked the book and rear-ranged it in seventy chapters 70 Al-Jādir mentions a manuscript entitled al-Fawāʾid wa-l-amthāl in MS ʿĀrif Hikmat 52 qadīm 31 jadīd Medina which he did not examine but suggests that it is identical with K al-Amthāl71 this manuscript is in fact an exact copy of al-Mubhij

Cairo Matbaʿat Muhammad Matar nd in Arbaʿ rasāʾil muntakhaba min muʾallafāt al-ʿallāma al-Thaʿālibī Istanbul 1301 [1883-4] Cairo Matbaʿat al-Najāh 1904 ed ʿA M Abū Tālib Tanta Dār al-Sahāba li-l-Turāth 1992 ed I Sālih Damascus Dār al-Bashāʾir 1999

20- Al-Muntahal = Kanz al-kuttāb = Muntakhab al-Thaʿālibī = al-Muntakhab al-Mīkālī (1) ()

This is an early collection of poetry from all periods arranged by genre The verses in the collection are suitable for use in both private and official corre-spondence (ikhwāniyyāt and sultāniyyāt)72 There is confusion in the primary sources regarding the authorship of the book some designate al-Thaʿālibī as the author others his friend Abū l-Fadl al-Mīkālī (see 5 6 7 15 23 28 92)73 Yahyā W al-Jabbūrī resolved this confusion by publishing the full ver-sion of al-Mīkālīrsquos work entitled al-Muntakhal74 A comparison of al-Mun-takhal and al-Muntahal reveals that the latter is a selection of poems from al-Mīkālīrsquos work MS Paris 3307 of al-Muntahal preserves a more complete text than the printed one The work is divided into fifteen chapters according to subjects and its scope includes poets from all periods including the authorrsquos

Ed A Abū ʿAlī Alexandria al-Matbaʿa al-Tijāriyya 1321 [1901] Cairo Maktabat al-Thaqāfa al-Dīniyya 1998

69 See C E Bosworth ldquoKābūs b Wushmagīrrdquo EI2 IV 357b-358b70 al-Thaʿālibī al-Mubhij ed I Sālih Damascus Dār al-Bashāʾir 1999 2371 See Al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 42472 See al-Thaʿālibī al-Muntahal ed A Abū ʿAlī Alexandria al-Matbaʿa al-Tijāriyya 1901 573 Al-Safadī attributes it to al-Thaʿālibī al-Kutubī to al-Mīkālī while Ibn Khallikān attribu-

tes it to al-Thaʿālibī once and to al-Mīkālī another time see al-Safadī 19 131 al-Kutubī ʿUyūn 13 181b Ibn Khallikān 2 361 5 109

74 Abū l-Fadl al-Mīkālī K al-Muntakhal ed Y W al-Jabbūrī Beirut Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī 2000


21- Nasīm al-Sahar = Khasāʾis al-lugha (35) () ()

The work is an abridgement by al-Thaʿālibī of his Fiqh al-lugha (see 7) Al-Jādir and al-Samarrai note that in MS Zāhiriyya 306 published recently by Khālid Fahmī the dedicatee appears as Abū l-Fath al-Hasan b Ibrāhīm al-Saymarī75 76 Al-Jādir places the dedication in the year 4241032 or 3 in Nīshāpūr

Ed M H Āl Yāsīn Baghdad Majallat al-Kuttāb 1 (nd) ed I M al-Saffār Baghdad Majallat al-Mawrid 1 (1971) ed Kh Fahmī Cairo Maktabat al-Khānjī 1999 (entitled Khasāʾis al-lugha)

22- Nathr al-nazm wa-hall al-ʿaqd = Nazm al-nathr wa-hall al-ʿaqd = Hall al-ʿaqd (15) () ()

This is a collection of rhetorical exercises recasting verses in elegant rhymed prose The work is dedicated in the introduction to the penultimate Maʾmūnid Abū l-ʿAbbās [Maʾmūn b Maʾmūn] Khwārizmshāh (see 2 6 11 14 33 56)77

Damascus Matbaʿat al-Maʿārif 1300 [1882-3] (repr 13011883-4) Cairo al-Matbaʿa al-Adabiyya 1317 [1899-1900] in Rasāʾil al-Thaʿālibī ed ʿA Khāqānī Baghdad Maktabat Dār al-Bayān 1972 Beirut Dār al-Rāʾid al-ʿArabī 1983 ed A ʿA Tammām Beirut Muʾassasat al-Kutub al-Thaqāfiyya 1990

23- Sihr al-balāgha wa-sirr al-barāʿa (7) () ()

This is a collection of rhymed prose arranged in fourteen chapters and pre-sented without attributions except for the last chapter which credits phrase-ology to famous figures such as Badīʿ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī (d 3981008) and al-Khwārizmī (d 383993) The final version of the work dedicated to ʿUbaydallāh b Ahmad al-Mīkālī (d 4361044) (see 5 6 7 15 20 28 92) is the third (and last) version after two previous editions ldquoclose in method and volumerdquo the first dedicated to a certain Abū ʿImrān Mūsā b Hārūn al-Kurdī and the second to Abū Sahl al-Hamdūnīal-Hamdawī (see 6 13

75 See his biography in al-Bākharzī 1 375-876 See al-Jādir al-Thaʿālibī 109 idem ldquoDirāsardquo 440 al-Samarrai 18577 See al-Thaʿālibī Nathr al-nazm wa-hall al-ʿaqd ed A ʿA Tammām Beirut Muʾassasat al-

Kutub al-Thaqāfiyya 1990 7


15 17 18 60)78 Al-Jādir thinks that the first version of the work was com-pleted before year 4031012 as it is already mentioned in al-Yatīma79

In Arbaʿ rasāʾil muntakhaba min muʾallafāt al-ʿallāma al-Thaʿālibī Istanbul 1301 [1883-4] ed A ʿUbayd Damascus al-Maktaba al-ʿArabiyya 1931 ed ʿA al-Hūfī Beirut Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya 1984 ed D Juwaydī Beirut al-Maktaba al-ʿAsriyya 2006

24- Tahsīn al-qabīh wa-taqbīh al-hasan = al-Tahsīn wa-l-taqbīh (23) () ()

Here al-Thaʿālibī presents prose and poetry sharing the trait of making the ugly seem beautiful and the beautiful ugly80 The work is dedicated to the Ghaznavid courtier Abū l-Hasan Muhammad b ʿĪsā al-Karajī (see 26 27)81 and al-Jādir places it in Ghazna between the years 407-121016-102182

Ed Sh ʿĀshūr Baghdad Wizārat al-Awqāf 1981 (repr Damascus Dār al-Yanābīʿ 2006) ed ʿA ʿA Muhammad Cairo Dār al-Fadīla 1995 ed N ʿA Hayyāwī Beirut Dār al-Arqam 2002 trsl (Persian) Muhammad b Abī Bakr b ʿAlī Sāvī ed ʿĀrif Ahmad al-Zughūl Tihrān Mīrās-i Maktūb 1385 [2006-7]

25- Al-Tamthīl wa-l-muhādara = al-Tamaththul wa-l-muhādara = Hilyat al-muhādara = al-Mahāsin wa-l-addād (8) (45) () ()

This is a comprehensive collection of proverbial expressions collected from different sources In the introduction al-Thaʿālibī dedicates it to Shams al-Maʿālī Qābūs b Wushmagīr (d 371981) during his second visit to Jurjān Based on this al-Jādir dates its completion between 4011010 and 403101283 Tevfik Ruumlştuuml Topuzoğlu mentions nine Istanbul manuscripts of this book84 Zahiyya Saʿdū in an unpublished dissertation presents a study

78 See al-Thaʿālibī Sihr al-balāgha wa-sirr al-barāʿa ed ʿA al-Hūfī Beirut Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya 1984 4

79 Al-Jādir al-Thaʿālibī 68 idem ldquoDirāsardquo 41280 On this genre in Arabic literature see G van Gelder ldquoBeautifying the Ugly and Uglifying

the Beautiful The Paradox in Classical Arabic Literaturerdquo Journal of Semitic Studies 48 (2003) 321-351

81 He was closely associated with Sultān Mahmūd of Ghazna see Tatimma 256-882 Al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 40283 See al-Jādir al-Thaʿālibī 70 idem ldquoDirāsardquo 40684 Topuzoğlu Tevfik Ruumlştuuml ldquoIstanbul Manuscripts of works (other than Yatīmat al-Dahr) by

Thaʿālibīrdquo Islamic Quarterly 17 (1973) 64-74


and a critical edition of the work based on the oldest extent manuscripts including Leiden Or 45485

In Arbaʿ rasāʾil muntakhaba min muʾallafāt al-ʿallāma al-Thaʿālibī Istanbul 1301 [1883-4] ed ʿA M al-Hulw Cairo Dār Ihyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya 1961 (repr Cairo al-Dār al-ʿArabiyya li-l-Kitāb 1983) ed Q al-Husayn Beirut Dār wa-Maktabat al-Hilāl 2003

26- Tatimmat Yatīmat al-dahr = Tatimmat al-Yatīma (37) () ()

This is the supplement of Yatīmat al-dahr following the same principles of organization but including writers whom al-Thaʿālibī came to know later in his life Like al-Yatīma al-Thaʿālibī re-edited it later with several additions Al-Thaʿālibī states in the introduction that the first edition was dedicated to the Ghaznavid courtier al-shaykh Abū l-Hasan Muhammad b ʿĪsā al-Karajī (see 24 27) The second edition includes events that took place in year 4241032 and thus dates to after this year Al-Thaʿālibī adds an epilogue in which he did not follow the method of geographical arrangement compris-ing those poets he forgot to include in the first four sections86

ʿAbbās Iqbāl Tehran Matbaʿat Fardīn 1934 M M Qumayha Beirut Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya 1983

27- Al-Tawfīq li-l-talfīq (41) ()

This work encompasses thirty chapters on the use of talfīq in different themes Talfīq refers to sewing fitting and putting together and in this context it sig-nifies an establishment of a relationship between words or terms homogene-ity of expression (by maintenance of the stylistic level ambiguity assonance etc)87 It is dedicated in the introduction to al-shaykh al-sayyid Ibrāhīm Sālih argues in his introduction of the edition that Abū l-Hasan Musāfir b

85 Zahiyya Saʿdū al-Tamaththul wa-l-muhādara li-Abī Mansūr al-Thaʿālibī dirāsa wa-tahqīq (PhD dissertation) Jāmiʿat al-Jazāʾir 2005-6

86 The work has been critically edited in an unpublished dissertation by A Sh Radwan Thaʿalibirsquos ldquoTatimmat al-Yatimahrdquo A Critical Edition and a Study of the Author as Anthologist and Literary Critic (PhD dissertation) University of Manchester Manchester 1972 Radwanrsquos edi-tion is based on five manuscripts the oldest of which is dated 6371240 The text of this edi-tion corrects numerous mistakes in Iqbālrsquos edition which is based only on one manuscript MS arabe Paris 3308 (fols 498-591)

87 For this technical use of the term talfīq with examples see M Ullmann Woumlrterbuch der klassischen arabischen Sprache Lām talfīq 1035


al-Hasan is meant here (see 10) based on a passage from Khāss al-khāss in which al-Thaʿālibī addresses him with the title al-shaykh al-sayyid88 Never-theless this is not certain since al-Thaʿālibī dedicated Mirʾāt al-murūʾāt to al-shaykh al-ajall al-sayyid al-Sāhib akfā l-kufāt (see 18)89 and Tahsīn al-qabīh to al-shaykh al-sayyid Abū l-Hasan Muhammad b ʿĪsā al-Karajī (see 24 26)90

Ed I Sālih Damascus Majmaʿ al-Lugha al-ʿArabiyya 1983 (repr Beirut Dār al-Fikr al-Muʿāsir 1990) ed H Nājī and Z Gh Zāhid Baghdad Matbaʿat al-Majmaʿ al-ʿIlmī al-ʿIrāqī 1985 (repr Beirut ʿĀlam al-Kutub 1996)

28- Thimār al-qulūb fī-l-mudāf wa-l-mansūb = al-Mudāf wa-l-mansūb (29) () ()

This is an alphabetically-arranged lexicon of two-word phrases and clicheacutes dedicated in the introduction to his friend the Nīshāpūrī notable Abū l-Fadl al-Mīkālī (see 5 6 7 15 20 23 28 92) Al-Jādir dates this after year 4211030 because al-Thaʿālibī mentions the death of Sultān Mahmūd al-Ghaznawī which occurred that year91 Al-Jādir adds a list of later abridg-ments of the work92 T R Topuzoğlu mentions at least fourteen manuscripts of the book available in Istanbul under this title93

Beirut Majallat al-Mashriq 12 (1900) (ch four with intro) ed M Abū Shādī Cairo Matbaʿat al-Zāhir 1908 ed M A Ibrāhīm Cairo Dār Nahdat Misr 1965 (repr Cairo Dār al-Maʿārif 1985) ed I Sālih Damascus Dār al-Bashāʾir 1994 (repr Cairo Maktabat al-Mutanabbī 1998) trsl (Persian) Ridā Anzābī Nizhād Mashhad Intishārāt-i Dānishgāh-i Firdawsī 1998 ed Q al-Husayn Beirut Dār wa-Maktabat al-Hilāl 2003

88 See Khāss al-khāss 239 and for the full argument see al-Thaʿālibī al-Tawfīq li-l-talfīq ed I Sālih Beirut Dār al-Fikr al-Muʿāsir 1990 8-9

89 Mirʾāt al-murūʾāt 6590 See al-Thaʿālibī Tahsīn al-qabīh wa-taqbīh al-hasan ed Sh al-ʿĀshūr Baghdad Wizārat

al-Awqāf 1981 27 91 See al-Jādir ldquoDirāsārdquo 40792 See ibid 407-893 Topuzoğlu ldquoIstanbul Manuscripts of works (other than Yatīmat al-dahr) by Thaʿālibīrdquo

62-5


29- Yatīmat al-dahr fī mahāsin ahl al-ʿasr (10) () ()

This is al-Thaʿālibīrsquos most celebrated work It is a four-volume anthology of poetry and prose intended as a comprehensive survey of the entire Islamic world in the second half of the fourthtenth century It is arranged geograph-ically and includes a total of 470 poets and prose writers Al-Thaʿālibī started composing it in the year 384994 and dedicated it to an unnamed vizier [ahad al-wuzarāʾ] Al-Jādir proposes Abū l-Husayn Muhammad b Kathīr who served as vizier for Abū ʿAlī b Sīmjūrī94 Al-Jādir justifies the omission of the dedication in the second edition by explaining that al-Thaʿālibī reworked the book during the reign of the Ghaznavids who succeeded Abū ʿAlī b Sīmjūrī and opposed his vizier Consequently al-Thaʿālibī did not want to alienate the Ghaznavids by mentioning a previous enemy in the preface Al-Jādir however does not explain why al-Thaʿālibī did not rededicate al-Yatīma to another personality95

Damascus al-Matbaʿa al-Hanafiyya 1885 Cairo Matbaʿat al-Sāwī 1934 ed M M ʿAbd al-Hamīd Cairo al-Maktaba al-Tijāriyya al-Kubrā 1946 (repr Cairo Matbaʿat al-Saʿāda 1956 Beirut Dār al-Fikr 1973) ed M M Qumayha Beirut Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya 1983 (repr 2000 2002)

30- Al-Yawāqīt fī baʿd al-mawāqīt = Yawāqīt al-mawāqīt = Madh al-shayʾ wa-dhammuh (21) (74) () ()

A compilation of prose and poetry in which praise and blame of various things are paired together Al-Thaʿālibī states in the introduction that he began this book in Nīshāpūr worked on it in Jurjān reached its middle in Jurjāniyya and completed it in Ghazna where it was dedicated to al-amīr al-ajall96 Al-Jādir identifies him with Abū l-Muzaffar Nasr b Nāsir al-Dīn (see 4 9 15 34) and based on this dates the book between 400-121009-102197 It survives in a unique manuscript joined with al-Zarāʾif wa-l-latāʾif (see 31) by Abū Nasr al-Maqdisī

94 For the dedication see al-ʿUtbī 125-6 Bosworth The Ghaznavids 57-8 for the attribu-tion see al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 442

95 The sources arrangement and significance of this work are the subject of a PhD disserta-tion by Bilal Orfali The Art of Anthology Al-Thaʿālibī and His Yatīmat al-dahr

96 See al-Thaʿālibī al-Zarāʾif wa-l-latāʾif wa-l-Yawāqīt fī baʿd al-mawāqīt ed N M M Jād Cairo Dār al-Kutub wa-l-Wathāʾiq 2006 50

97 Al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 444


Cairo 1275 [1858] Baghdad 1282 [1865] Cairo al-Matbaʿa al-Maymani-yya al-Wahbiyya 1296 [1878] (repr 13071889 and 1323 1906) Cairo al-Matbaʿa al-ʿĀmira 1325 [1908] Beirut Dār al-Manāhil 1992 ed ʿA Y al-Jamal Cairo Maktabat al-Ādāb 1993 ed N M M Jād Cairo Dār al-Kutub wa-l-Wathāʾiq 2006

31- Al-Zarāʾif wa-l-latāʾif = al-Latāʾif wa-l-zarāʾif = al-Tarāʾif wa-l-latāʾif = al-Mahāsin wa-l-addād (16) () ()

As in no 30 this compilation presents poetry and prose in paired praise and blame It survives in a unique manuscript combined with al-Yawāqīt fī baʿd al-mawāqīt put together by the copyist Abū Nasr al-Maqdisī and re-titled as al-Latāʾif wa-l-zarāʾif

See no 30 for editions

II- Printed Authenticity Doubtful

32- Al-Ashbāh wa-l-nazāʾir

In this work on homonyms in the Qurʾān only al-Thaʿālibīrsquos nisba is men-tioned on the first page as follows ldquowāhid dahrih wa-farīd ʿasrih raʾs al-nubalāʾ wa-tāj al-fudalāʾ al-Thaʿālibīrdquo Al-Jādir rejects the attribution of the work to al-Thaʿālibī without justification98 Supporting the contrary view al-Thaʿālibī did show interest in philological work in his Fiqh al-lugha (see 7) al-Tamthīl wa-l-muhādara (see 25) and Thimār al-qulūb (see 28) and in the Qurʾānic text in his al-Iqtibās (see 9) The text thus quoting no poetry or prose later than the fourth century could have been al-Thaʿālibīrsquos However the author calls a certain ʿAlī b ʿUbaydallāh ldquoshaykhunārdquo whose name appears nowhere as a teacher or a source of al-Thaʿālibī

Ed M al-Misrī Beirut ʿĀlam al-Kutub 1984

33- Al-Nuhya fī-l-tard wa-l-ghunya

Al-Jādir mentions this title as being attributed to al-Thaʿālibī and printed twice in Mecca 1301 [1883-4] and Cairo 1326 [1908] It is dedicated to

98 Al-Jādir al-Thaʿālibī 124


the Khwārizmshāh (see 2 6 11 14 22 56) and according to al-Jādir was composed between years 403-71012-101699 He does not state whether he inspected a copy100

34- Taʾrīkh ghurar al-siyar = al-Ghurar fī siyar al-mulūk wa-akhbārihim = Ghurar akhbār mulūk al-Furs wa-siyarihim = Ghurar mulūk al-Furs = Tabaqāt al-Mulūk (22) ()

A universal history which according to Hajjī Khalīfa extends from the cre-ation to the authorrsquos own time Four manuscripts are known to exist The first of these dated 5971201 or 5991203 is preserved in the library of Dāmād Ibrāhīm Pāshā in Istanbul The second and third manuscripts are in the Bibliothegraveque Nationale of Paris Fonds arabe 1488 and Fonds arabe 5053 The fourth is MS Zāhiriyya 14479 dated to 11121700 and entitled Tabaqāt al-mulūk Only the first half of the work up to the caliphate of Abū Bakr has survived thereof only the section dealing with pre-Islamic Persian history is published It is dedicated to Abū l-Muzaffar Nasr b Sebuumlktigin Sāmānid governor of Khurāsān (d 4121021) (see 4 9 15) and according to the editor is probably written between 4081017 and 4121021 The name which Brockelmann gives for the author appears to be an artificial construc-tion One manuscript calls the author al-Husayn b Muhammad al-Marghānī Another manuscript inserts the name Abū Mansūr in several passages in which the author refers to himself The name Abū Mansūr al-Husayn b Muhammad al-Marghānī al-Thaʿālibī does not appear in the sources of the fourthtenth century which made Brockelmann reject the attribution to ʿAbd al-Malik al-Thaʿālibī101 On stylistic grounds and from the appearance of cer-tain characteristic locutions Franz Rosenthal followed Zotenberg in identi-fying the author with ʿ Abd al-Malik al-Thaʿālibī Both explained al-Marghānīrsquos name which appears in only one manuscript as a scribal error102 C E Bos-worth in a personal communication notes that Rosenthal later changed his

99 Idem ldquoDirāsardquo 441100 I was not able to find any information about this work101 See C Brockelmann GAL SI 581-2 idem ldquoal-Thaʿālibī Abū Mansūr al-Husayn b

Muhammad al-Maraghānīrdquo EI1 VIII 732b102 F Rosenthal ldquoFrom Arabic books and manuscripts III The Author of the Gurar as-si-

yarrdquo JAOS 70 [1950] 181-2 Rowson and Bonebakker note that the instances of the phrase ldquoSatan made me forgetrdquo (ansānīhi al-shaytān) in the Yatīma should be added to those cited by Rosenthal from the Tatimmat al-Yatīma and Fiqh al-lugha as helping to confirm al-Thaʿālibīrsquos authorship of the Ghurar al-siyar where the phrase also occurs see E Rowson amp S A Bone-bakker A Computerized Listing of Biographical Data from the Yatīmat al-Dahr by al-Thaʿālibī Malibu UNDENA Publications 1980 23


opinion103 Al-Jādir also attributes the work to al-Thaʿālibī citing among his further evidence an isnād to Abū Bakr al-Khwārizmī (d 383993) one of al-Thaʿālibīrsquos main sources104

Ed H Zotenberg Paris Impr Nationale 1900 (repr Tehran M H Asadī 1963 Amsterdam APA Oriental Press 1979) trsl M Hidāyat Tehran 13691949 (entitled Shāhnāmā-i Thaʿālibī) (repr Tihrān Asātīr 1385 [2006]) trsl Muhammad Fadāʾilī [Tehran] Nashr-i Nuqra 1368 [1989-90]

35- Tarjamat al-kātib fī ādāb al-sāhib (43)

A work on friendship not mentioned in primary sources Al-Thaʿālibīrsquos name appears on most of the manuscripts The book foregrounds muhdath and contemporary poetry no material later than al-Thaʿālibīrsquos life span appears and a good number of the akhbār can be found in other works of al-Thaʿālibī His authorship is possible

Ed ʿA Dh Zāyid ʿAmmān Wizārat al-Thaqāfa 2001

36- Tuhfat al-wuzarāʾ (17)

This is a work on vizierate and its practices with quotations from famous viziers replete with poetic quotations It consists of five chapters on the ori-gin of viziership its virtues and benefits its customs claims and necessities its divisions and reports concerning the most competent viziers After dedi-cating a work entitled al-Mulūkī to the Khwārizmshāh the author dedicates this new work to Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Hamdūnī The editors of the work H ʿA al-Rāwī and I M al-Saffār consider the work al-Thaʿālibīrsquos with some addi-tions by a later scribe to account for material that belongs to a much later period105 However H Nājī argues that the supposed additions harmonize with the surrounding akhbār in the chapter and are original Nājī also dis-putes the historicity of al-Hamdūnī [shakhsiyya lā wujūda lahā tarīkhiyyan] and holds that no work entitled al-Mulūkī by al-Thaʿālibī survives Nājī states that the introduction of the work is identical with that of the sixthtwelfth century al-Tadhkira al-hamdūniyya by Ibn Hamdūn (d 5621167) Nājī moreover points out errors of attributions and content that al-Thaʿālibī could

103 See C E Bosworth ldquoal-Thaʿālibī Abū Mansūrrdquo EI2 X 425b104 See al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 419105 See al-Thaʿālibī Tuhfat al-wuzarārsquo ed H ʿA al-Rāwī and I M al-Saffār Baghdad

Wizārat al-Awqāf 1977 22ff


not have committed in his opinion He thus considers the text instead as an independent work of the sevenththirteenth century106

Nājīrsquos argument fails to convince for a number of reasons First although the introduction of Tuhfat al-wuzarāʾ appears in al-Tadhkira al-Hamdūniyya it is not the general one but precedes the second bāb107 The author of the Tuhfa may have copied al-Tadhkira or vice versa Moreover Tuhfat al-wuzarāʾ includes three chapters that are taken from al-Thaʿālibīrsquos Ādāb al-mulūk (see 2) Thus al-Thaʿālibī is certainly the author of a good part of the work and as attested above he has reworked not infrequently previously circulated books In addition to these three (recycled) chapters the work includes sev-eral quotations from al-Thaʿālibīrsquos other works including his own poetry Moreover the dedicatee Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Hamdūnī could very well be Abū ʿAbdallāh Muhammad b Hāmid to whom al-Thaʿālibī dedicated Ahsan mā samiʿtu (see 3) and who served as a vizier of the Khwārizmshāh Maʾmūn b Maʾmūn as noted above Finally the introduction of Ādāb al-mulūk mentions al-Mulūkī as one of the variant titles al-Thaʿālibī had thought of giving to the work and it is indeed dedicated to the Khwārizmshāh as he indicates in the introduction of Tuhfat al-wuzarāʾ Evidence supports the hypothesis that the book is a reworking of al-Thaʿālibīrsquos Ādāb al-mulūk and perhaps of another authorrsquos work on viziership

Ed R Heinecke Beirut Dār al-Qalam 1975 ed H ʿA al-Rāwī and I M al-Saffār Baghdad Wizārat al-Awqāf 1977 (repr Cairo Dār al-Āfāq al-ʿArabiyya 2000 ed S Abū Dayya ʿAmmān Dār al-Bashāʾir 1994 ed Ibtisām Marhūn al-Saffār ʿAmmān Jidārā li-l-Kitāb al-ʿĀlamī 2009 Bagh-dad Matbaʿat al-ʿĀnī 2002 Beirut al-Dār al-ʿArabiyya li-l-Mawsūʿāt 2006

III Printed Authenticity rejected

37- Al-Ādāb

Al-Jādir mentions three manuscripts of the work MS ʿĀrif Hikmat 1171-H-adab MS Vatican 1462 and MS Atef Efendi 2231108 while Nājī mentions

106 See H Nājī ldquoHawla kitāb Tuhfat al-wuzarāʾ al-mansūb li-l-Thaʿālibīrdquo in Buhūth fī l-naqd al-turāthī Beirut Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī 1994 211-7

107 See Ibn Hamdūn al-Tadhkira al-Hamdūniyya ed I ʿAbbās amp B ʿAbbās Beirut Dār Sādir 1996 1 237

108 See al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 391


only the last two109 The three manuscripts are attributed to al-Thaʿālibī In addition MS Leiden 478 and in the Garrett collection MS Princeton 205 and MS Princeton 5977 are of the same work with the first two attributed to Ibn Shams al-Khilāfa (d 6221225) MS Chester Beatty 47592 entitled Majmūʿ fī-l-hikam wa-l-ādāb contains the same work The title in MS Prince-ton 5977 is changed by one of the readers from al-Ādāb to Majmūʿ fī-l-hikam wa-l-ādāb The incipit of the manuscript contains both titles the author says ldquoammā baʿd fa-hādhā majmūʿun fī-l-hikami wa-l-ādāb wa-ʿanwantuhu bi-kitāb al-Ādābrdquo The work has been edited by M A al-Khānjī based on one other manuscript located in the personal library of Ahmad Effendi Āghā and attributed to Jaʿfar b Shams al-Khilāfa

Ed M A al-Khānjī Cairo Matbaʿat al-Saʿāda 1930 (repr Cairo Matbaʿat al-Khānjī 1993)

38- Ahāsin kalim al-nabiyy wa-l-sahāba wa-l-tābiʿīn wa-mulūk al-jāhiliyya wa-mulūk al-Islām

This is a title in the Leiden MS Codex Orientalis 1042 of which al-Samarrai published the first section The Ahāsin occupies fols 62a-108b Al-Jādir believes this is an abridgement of al-Iʿjāz wa-l-ījāz by Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d 6061209)110 Muhammad Zaynahum published the work based on two manuscripts in Dār al-Kutub al-Misriyya and Maʿhad al-Makhtūtāt al-ʿArabiyya

Ed and trsl (Latin) J Ph Valeton Leiden 1844 ed M Zaynahum Cairo al-Dār al-Thaqāfiyya 2006

39- Al-Barq al-wamīd ʿalā al-baghīd al-musammā bi-l-naqīd

Madgharī mentions a work with this title printed in Qāzān in 13051887111 I was not able to locate the printed text but the MS Azhar 10032 under this title is the work of Hārūn b Bahāʾ al-Dīn al-Marjānī

40- Durar al-hikam

Al-Jādir examined MS Dār al-Kutub al-Misriyya 5107-adab under this title attributed to al-Thaʿālibī and rejected the authorship of al-Thaʿālibī based on

109 See intro of al-Anīs fī ghurar al-tajnīs 26110 See al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 393111 See intro of Mirʾāt al-murūʾāt 32


a colophon indicating that the work was compiled by Yāqūt al-Mustaʿsī (al-Mustaʿsimī) in 6311233112 The work has been published based on two related manuscripts The work is a collection of maxims mostly from the Arabic tradition and includes poetry and Hadīth No internal evidence sup-ports the authorship of al-Thaʿālibī

Ed Y ʿA al-Wahhāb Tanta Dār al-Sahāba li-l-Turāth 1995

41- Al-Farāʾid wa-l-qalāʾid = al-Amthāl = Ahāsin al-mahāsin = al-ʿIqd al-nafīs wa-nuzhat al-jalīs

This title had been attributed to al-Thaʿālibī already in al-Kalāʿīrsquos list The printed text however is not al-Thaʿālibīrsquos but that of Abū l-Hasan Muhammad b al-Hasan b Ahmad al-Ahwāzī (d 4281036) (see 66)113 as indicated in a number of manuscripts Moreover as al-Jādir points out al-Thaʿālibī himself quotes from it in his Sihr al-balāgha (see 23) attributing it to al-Ahwāzī114

In Majmūʿat khams rasāʾil Istanbul 1301 [1883-4] (repr 13251907 Najaf 1970) (entitled Ahāsin al-mahāsin) Cairo al-Matbaʿa al-Adabiyya 1301 [1883-4] Cairo Dār al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya al-Kubrā [1909] (entitled Kitāb al-Amthāl al-musammā bi-l-Farāʾid wa-l-qalāʾid wa-yusammā aydan bi-l-ʿIqd al-nafīs wa-nuzhat al-jalīs) Cairo Matbaʿat al-Taqaddum al-Tijāriyya 1327 [1910] (entitled al-Amthāl and attributed to ʿAlī b al-Husayn al-Rukhkhajī)

42- Al-Jawāhir al-hisān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān = Tafsīr al-Thaʿālibī

This is a work of ʿAbd al-Rahmān b Muhammad b Makhlūf al-Jazāʾirī al-Thaʿālibī (d 873-51468-70) The name of Abū Mansur al-Thaʿālibī is found on many manuscripts of the work because of the identical nisba

al-Jazāʾir A B M al-Turkī 1905-1909 Beirut Muʾassasat al-Aʿlamī li-l-Matbūʿāt nd ed ʿA al-Tālibī al-Jazāʾir al-Muʾassasa al-Wataniyya li-l-Kitāb 1985 ed M ʿA Muhammad ʿA M ʿA Ahmad and A A ʿAbd al-Fattāh Beirut Dār Ihyāʾ al-Turāth 1997 ed M al-Fādilī Beirut al-Mak-taba al-ʿAsriyya 1997

112 See al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 410-1113 See his biography in al-Khatīb al-Baghdādī Taʾrīkh Baghdād Beirut Dār al-Kitāb

al-ʿArabī 1966 2 218114 Al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 421


43- Makārim al-akhlāq

This work published by Louis Cheikho is a selection by an unknown author from al-Ahwāzīrsquos al-Farāʾid wa-l-qalāʾid (see 41 66) Another manuscript under this title which seems to be an authentic work of al-Thaʿālibī is dis-cussed in no 66

Ed L Cheikho Beirut Majallat al-Mashriq 1900

44- Muʾnis al-wahīd wa-nuzhat al-mustafīd

Al-Jādir ascertains that this printed work has no connection with al-Thaʿalibī and is in fact part of Muhādarāt al-udabāʾ by al-Rāghib al-Isfahānī (see 51 71)115

Trsl Gustav Fluumlgel Der vertraute Gefaumlhrte des Einsamen in schlagfertigen Gegenreden von Abu Manssur Abdursquolmelik ben Mohammed ben Ismail Ettseacirclibi aus Nisabur uumlbersetzt berichtigt und mit Anmerkungen erlaumlutert Vienna Anton Edlern von Schmid 1829

45- al-Muntakhab fī mahāsin ashʿār al-ʿArab

This anthology is the work of an anonymous author possibly from the fourthtenth century It includes ninety-six qasīdas and four urjūzas several of which are not found anywhere else

Ed ʿĀ S Jamāl Cairo Maktabat al-Khānjī 1994

46- Natāʾij al-mudhākara (94)

Al-Jādir mentions a manuscript of this work in Medina MS ʿĀrif Hikmat 31-Majāmīʿ where al-Thaʿālibīrsquos name appears on the front page of the codex116 I Sālih edited the work attributing it to Ibn al-Sayrafī Abū l-Qāsim ʿAlī b Munjib b Sulaymān (d 5421148) Sālih bases this attribution to the textrsquos various isnāds which indicate that the author is Fātimid and to a refer-ence to a Risālā by al-Sayrafī117 Also supporting this attribution is the fact that the first work bound in the same codex is al-Sayrafīrsquos

115 See ibid 439 116 See ibid 439117 See for the complete argument introduction of Ibn al-Sayrafī K Natāʾij al-mudhākara

ed I Sālih Beirut Dār al-Bashāʾir 1999 9-10


Ed I Sālih Damascus Dār al-Bashāʾir 1999

47- Rawdat al-Fasāha

This work is falsely attributed to al-Thaʿālibī by M I Salīm Despite the scant evidence supporting the attribution to al-Thaʿālibī in the introduction of the workmdashmainly the start with barāʿat al-istihlāl 118 [excellent exordium] coined with Qurʾānic quotations the emphasis on brevity and the worth of the bookmdashit includes numerous quotations by later authors including al-Harīrī (d 5161122) and al-Zamakhsharī (d 5381144)

Ed M I Salīm Cairo Maktabat al-Qurʾān 1994

48- al-Shakwā wa-l-ʿitāb wa-mā li-l-khillān wa-l-ashāb

The work as the editor IʿA al-Muftī notes is a selection of Rabīʿ al-abrār of al-Zamakhsharī119

Tanta Dār al-Sahaba li-l-Turāth 1992 ed I ʿA al-Muftī Kuwait al-Majlis al-Watanī li-l-Thaqāfa 2000 Kuwait Kulliyyat al-Tarbiya al-Asāsiyya 2000

49- al-Tahānī wa-l-taʿāzī

The work which translates as ldquocongratulations and condolencesrdquo is a manual of etiquette furnishing examples of appropriate responses to particular occa-sions and situations (see 79) Topuzoğlu mentions one manuscript of this work attributed to al-Thaʿālibī in MS Bayezid Umumi Veliyuddin Efendi 26313120 Ibrāhīm b Muhammad al-Batshān edited the work using two other incomplete manuscripts and attributes it rightly to Abū Mansūr Muhammad b Sahl b al-Marzubān (d after 340951) based on several

118 Al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī defines the term barāʿat al-istihlāl as follows ldquobarāʿat al-istihlāl occurs when the author makes a statement at the beginning of his work to indicate the general subject before entering into the detailsrdquo see al-Jurjānī K al-Taʿrīfāt 64 See also for barāʿat al-istihlāl al-Qalqashandī Subh al-aʿshā 11 73ff for the use of barāʿat al-istihlāl in al-Thaʿālibīrsquos works see B Orfali ldquoThe Art of the Muqaddimardquo 201-2

119 See intro of al-Thaʿālibī (falsely attributed) al-Shakwā wa-l-ʿitāb wa-mā waqaʿa li-l-khillān wa-l-ashāb ed I ʿA al-Muftī Kuwait al-Majlis al-Watanī li-l-Thaqāfa 2000 20ff

120 T R Topuzoğlu ldquoIstanbul Manuscripts of works (other than Yatīmat al-Dahr) by Thaʿālibīrdquo 67-7


quotations found in his other works121 The four other works in the same codex are all by al-Marzubān

Ed I al-Batshān Buraydah Nādī al-Qasīm al-Adabī 2003

50- Tuhfat al-zurafāʾ wa-fākihat al-lutafāʾ (92) = al-Daʿawāt wa-l-fusūl

Al-Jādir mentions a manuscript of this work in Medina MS ʿĀrif Hikmat 154 attributed to al-Thaʿālibī122 However this title was added on the cover by Muhammad Saʿīd Mawlawī a modern scholar and not by the original scribe Many of the sayings in this work can be traced to al-Thaʿālibīrsquos various works yet the work cannot be his because of the several references to his prose and poetry in the third person introduced by ldquowa-anshadanī Abū Mansūr al-Thaʿālibīrdquo More importantly the author includes his own qasīda of ten lines six verses of which are to be found in Yāqūt al-Hamawīrsquos Muʿjam al-udabāʾ attributed to ʿAlī b Ahmad al-Wāhidī (d 468 1075 or 6)123 This caused ʿĀdil al-Furayjāt to attribute the work to al-Wāhidī and assign it the title al-Daʿawāt wa-l-fusūl based on al-Wāhidīrsquos list of works and the subject of the book124

Al-Wāhidī ʿAlī b Ahmad al-Daʿawāt wa-l-fusūl ed ʿĀ al-Furayjāt Damas-cus ʿA al-Furayjāt 2005

51- al-Uns wa-l-ʿurs = Uns al-wahīd

MS Paris 3034 entitled Uns al-wahīd (see 44 71) and attributed to al-Thaʿālibī in the cover page is printed under the title al-Uns wa-l-ʿurs by Īflīn Farīd Yārd and attributed to the vizier and kātib Abū Saʿd Mansūr b al-Husayn al-Ābī (d 4211030)125 The editor bases the attribution to al-Ābī on internal and external evidence126

121 See also al-Safadī 3 119122 Al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 403123 See his biography in Yāqūt al-Hamawī Muʿjam al-udabāʾ 1695-1664124 See intro of al-Wāhidī al-Daʿawāt wa-l-fusūl ed ʿĀ al-Furayjāt Damascus ʿA al-

Furayjāt 2005 7-15125 The work has been discussed in G Vajda ldquoUne anthologie sur lrsquoamitieacute attribueacutee aacute

al-Taʿālibīrdquo Arabica 18 (1971) 211-3 Vajda suggests that the author is associated with the court of al-Sāhib Ibn ʿAbbād

126 E Rowson drew my attention to a lost work by Miskawayhi entitled Uns al-farīd which is a collection of akhbār poetry maxims and proverbs see al-Safadī 8 73


IV- In Manuscript Authentic Works

52- Ahāsin al-mahāsin (88) ()

Jurjī Zaydān mentions two manuscripts in Paris and al-Khidīwiyya [= earlier name of Dār al-Kutub al-Misriyya] Cairo without further reference127 H Nājī identifies the Paris manuscript to be MS Paris 3036 The editors of the Latāʾif al-maʿārif mention two manuscripts under this title in Dār al-Kutub al-Misriyya without giving references128 H Nājī ascertains after examining the Paris manuscript that the book is a fuller version of Ahsan mā samiʿtu (see 3) the latter forming only one fourth of the original129 Moreover the Ahāsin includes prose along with poetry unlike its abridgement which con-tains only poetry The longer introduction of the work is identical to the introduction of Man ghāba ʿanhu l-mutrib (see 17)

53- al-Amthāl wa l-tashbīhāt (9) ()

This work is different from al-Farāʾid wa-l-qalāʾid (see 41 43 66) which was printed under the title of al-Amthāl and falsely attributed to al-Thaʿālibī Three manuscripts are known MS al-Maktaba al-Ahmadiyya 4734 MS Maktabat Khazna 1150 and MS Feyzullah 3133 Al-Jādir examined these and described the work as devoting 111 chapters to different subjects based on proverbs from Qurʾān hadīth and famous Arab and non-Arab proverbs This is then followed by poetry praising and blaming things (madhu l-ashyāʾi wa-dhammuhā) Al-Jādir points out the bookrsquos similarity to al-Tamthīl wa-l-muhādara Al-Thaʿālibī mentions in it only al-Mubhij among his works which makes al-Jādir date the book among the earlier works130

54- al-Amthāl wa-l-istishhādāt ()

The MS Aya Sofya 6824 under this title was copied by Muhammad b ʿUmar b Ahmad in 5231128 The work is divided into three parts (1) Qurʾānic proverbs and their equivalents in various cultures (2) proverbs related to vari-ous professions (3) select proverbs following the pattern of af ʿal and not inc-luded in the book of Abū ʿAbdallāh Hamza b al-Hasan al-Isbahānī dedicated to this subject

127 See Zaydān 2 232128 See intro of Latāʾif al-maʿārif 21129 H Nājī Muhādarāt fī tahqīq al-nusūs 145ff130 See al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 397


55- Asmāʾ al-addād

This Najaf manuscript was examined by Muhammad Husayn Āl Yāsīn who identified it as part of Fiqh al-lugha (see 7)131

56- Ghurar al-balāgha wa-durar al-fasāha

Al-Samarrai mentions MS Beşīr Agha 150 with a colophon dedicating the work to mawlānā l-malik al-muʾayyad al-muzaffar walī al-niʿam This titula-ture is identical with that found in K Ādāb al-Mulūk (see 2) which had been composed and dedicated to the Khwārizmshāh Maʾmūn b Maʾmūn (see 3 6 11 14 22 33) The work should not be confused with the Ghurar al-balāgha fī-l-nazm wa-l-nathr = al-Iʿjāz wa-l-ījāz

57- Rāwh al-rūh

Hilāl Nājī draws much poetry of al-Thaʿālibī from a manuscript entitled Rawh al-rūh but does not give its reference or location (see 81) A manu-script thus titled is located in al-Maktaba al-Ahmadiyya 1190

58- Sajʿ al-manthūr = Risālat sajʿiyyāt al-Thaʿālibī = Qurādat al-dhahab (40) ()

This work was first mentioned by al-Kalāʿī and others followed him Al-Jādir mentions a manuscript of this work MS Topkapı Ahmet III Kitāpları 23372 Topuzoğlu lists two more MS Yeni Cami 1188 and MS Uumlniversite Arapccedila Yazmalar 7411 and notes one more with the title of Qurādat al-dha-hab MS Bayezid Umūmī 32071 which al-Jādir and Nājī however list as a different work132 On inspection MS Yeni Cami 1188 and MS Bayezid Umūmī 32071 include an introduction matching al-Thaʿālibīrsquos style expounding on the brevity of the work its purpose and method The work includes mostly proverbs and some poetry Its declared purpose is to be used for memorization and correspondence [mukātabāt] From this it would seem that al-Thaʿālibī sees literary speech as belonging to three different registersmdashnathr sajʿ and shiʿr and the adīb may express the same idea in more than one

131 See ibid 394132 Topuzoğlu ldquoIstanbul Manuscripts of works (other than Yatīmat al-Dahr) by Thaʿālibīrdquo

68-9 al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 424 intro of al-Anīs fī ghurar al-tajnīs 40 The title given at the end of MS Bayezid Umūmī 32071 and on the first page of the codex is Qurādāt al-dhahab Qurādat al-dhahab fī al-naqd is the title of a different work by Ibn Rashīq al-Qayrawānī


register as al-Thaʿālibī shows here and in his Nazm al-nathr (see 22) and Sihr al-balāgha (see 23)

59- Zād safar al-mulūk ()

Al-Samarrai lists MS Chester Beatty 5067-3 thus titled and dedicated to a certain Abū Saʿīd al-Hasan b Sahl in Ghazna133 Joseph Sadan described it as a collection of ornate prose and poetic quotes on the subject of travel134 The work consists of forty-six chapters on the advantages and disadvantages of all types of journeys by land or sea the etiquette of departure bidding farewell arrival and receiving travelers the hardships encountered while traveling such as poison snow frost excessive cold thirst longing for the home [al-hanīn ila-l-awtān] being a stranger [al-ghurba] extreme fatigue and their appropriate cures135 For cures the book offers lengthy medical recipes Here al-Thaʿālibī demonstrates an in-depth knowledge of pharmacology and basic medicine absent in any of his other works A short chapter on fiqh al-safar even discusses legal issues connected with travel such as performing ablution prayer and fasting while traveling This interest in medicine and jurispru-dence though minor raises some doubts about the attribution of the work to al-Thaʿālibī especially since the work is mentioned neither in any bio-graphical entry on al-Thaʿālibī nor in any of his other works Nevertheless internal evidence supports its attribution First in at least three separate instances the work includes direct quotations from al-Mubhij of al-Thaʿālibīmdashtwice introduced by the statement wa-qultu fī K al-Mubhij Sec-ond the scribe notes that al-Thaʿālibī composed the work when he entered Ghazna Third the introduction of the work is typical for al-Thaʿālibī The author employs ldquoexcellent exordiumrdquo stating in more than ten lines that the appearance of the dedicatee of the work caused the author to forget the hard-ship of travel Further characteristic is the list of contents and an appeal to God to bestow infinite blessings and gifts on the patron by means of reading the book common in al-Thaʿālibīrsquos various works136 Fourth in the first chap-ter the author uses more than forty clicheacutes of two-word phrases that are easily traced to his Thimār al-qulūb (see 28) and which he often uses in his other works Fifth the author transmits poetry on the authority of al-Khwārizmī Abū l-Fath al-Bustī al-Sūlī and others who frequently figure as oral sources of

133 Al-Samarrai 186134 See J Sadan ldquoVine Women and Seas Some Images of the Ruler in Medieval Arabic Lit-

eraturerdquo Journal of Semitic Studies 34 (1989) 147135 See the table of content given by al-Thaʿālibī himself in Zād safar al-mulūk MS Chester

Beatty Ar 5067-3 43a-44b136 See B Orfali ldquoThe Art of the Muqaddimardquo 191-2


al-Thaʿālibī Sixth a good number of lines of poetry are introduced by phrases like wa-ahsanu mā samiʿtu and wa-ahsanu mā qīla which are very common phrases in al-Thaʿālibīrsquos works More importantly the poetry introduced by such phrases constitutes the material of his Ahāsin al-mahāsin (see 52) and its abridgement Ahsan mā samiʿtu (see 3) Finally the author refers to his con-temporaries as ldquoal-ʿasriyyūnrdquo a term coined by al-Thaʿālibī and used in most of his works and quotes no personality beyond al-Thaʿālibīrsquos life span These individual pieces of evidence ascertain the workrsquos authenticity despite the absence in the primary sources

60- Untitled adab work ()

Bosworth and al-Samarrai mention an untitled adab work by al-Thaʿālibī in MS Paris 42012 written for the library of Abū Sahl al-Hamdūnīal-Hamdawī (see 6 13 15 17 18 23)137

V- In Manuscript Authenticity Uncertain

61- Al-Anwār al-bahiyya fī taʿrīf maqāmāt fusahāʾ al-bariyya (84) ()

Al-Jādir lists this work mentioned by al-Bābānī138 as lost but two manu-scripts exist in MS Zāhiriyya 3709 and in Maktabat Kulliyyat al-Ādāb wa-l-Makhtūtāt in al-Kuwayt

62- Al-ʿAshara (al-ʿIshra) al-mukhtāra

Hilāl Nājī copied by al-Jādir mentions a work attributed to al-Thaʿālibī under this title MS Rampur 1375-3139

63- Hilyat al-muhādara wa-ʿunwān al-mudhākara wa-maydān al-musāmara (45)

MS Paris 5914 carries this title140 The work could be identical with Al-Tamthīl wa-l-muhādara = al-Tamaththul wa-l-muhādara = Hilyat al-muhādara = al-Mahāsin wa-l-addād (see 25)

137 Bosworth The Latāʾif al-Maʿārif 7 al-Samarrai 186138 See al-Bābānī Hadiyyat al-ʿārifīn asmāʾ al-muʾallifīn wa-āthār al-musannifīn Baghdad

Maktabat al-Muthannā 1972 1 625139 Intro of al-Anīs fī ghurar al-tajnīs 44 al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 417140 See E Blochet Catalogue de la collection des manuscrits orientaux arabes persans et turcs

formeacutee par Charles Shefer Paris Leroux 1900 22


64- Injāz al-maʿrūf wa-ʿumdat al-malhūf

MS Maʿhad al-Makhtūtāt al-ʿArabiyya 1017 in Egypt carries this title Another manuscript mentioned by Brockelmann is Khudā Bakhsh 1399141

65- Jawāhir al-hikam (86)

Al-Bābānī is the only one in the sources who mentions this title142 Al-Jādir includes it among the lost works143 However two manuscripts exist MS Berlin 1224 and MS Princeton 2234 though they are not identical The title in the Berlin manuscript is Jawāhir al-hikma The text is an anthology of ten chapters which is followed by selections from Kalīla wa-Dimna and al-Yawāqīt fi-l-mawāqīt (see 30) Al-Thaʿālibīrsquos name is mentioned in the introduction and the work includes a few quotations present in al-Thaʿālibīrsquos other works Its attribution is possible

The Princeton manuscript has the title and author on the first folio It is a collection of wise sayings in Arabic from different periods (Greek Byzantine Sasanian Hermetic Pre-Islamic and Islamic) by Solomon Socrates Plato Aristotle Galen Ptolemy Simonides Diogenes Pythagoras Khosroe Quss b Sāʿida etc without any chapter-division No internal evidence supports the attribution to al-Thaʿālibī The work starts with a short introduction not representative of al-Thaʿālibīrsquos style

66- Makārim al-akhlāq wa-mahāsin al-ādāb wa-badāʾiʿ al-awsāf wa-gharāʾib al-tashbīhāt

Al-Samarrai mentions this unattributed MS Leiden 300 which he attributes to al-Thaʿālibī based on its content The work consists of an introduction and three chapters containing an alphabetically arranged list of proverbs that al-Samarrai suggests could be the missing K al-Amthāl (see 41 53 54) of al-Thaʿālibī mentioned in al-Safadīrsquos list144 He adds that he is in the process of preparing its edition145 The published work of Louis Cheikho (al-Machreq 1900) under this title is not al-Thaʿālibīrsquos but selections from al-Farāʾid wa-l-qalāʾid of al-Ahwāzī (see 41 43)

141 See Brockelmann GAL I 340 Brockelmann gives the name as al-Injās [] al-maʿrūf wa-ʿumdat al-qulūb

142 See al-Bābānī 1 625 143 See al-Jādir al-Thaʿālibī 119144 The title al-Amthāl wa-l-tashbīhāt that appears in al-Safadīrsquos list most probably refers to

the work described in no 53 see al-Safadī 19 132145 See al-Samarrai 181-2


67- Mawāsim al-ʿumur

A manuscript with this title attributed to al-Thaʿālibī survives in MS Feyzul-lah 21336 in a majmūʿa which consists of 204-214 folios146 Brockelmann lists another Rağıp Paşa 473 (1)147

68- Al-Muhadhdhab min ikhtiyār Dīwan Abī l-Tayyib wa-ahwālihi wa-sīratihi wa-mā jarā baynahu wa-bayna l-mulūk wa-l-shuʿarāʾ (44)

A manuscript under this title exists in MS Dār al-Kutub al-Misriyya 18194-sh148 This work could be identical with the chapter on al-Mutanabbī in Yatīmat al-dahr (see 1 16 29)

69- Nuzhat al-albāb wa-ʿumdat al-kuttāb = ʿUmdat al-Kuttāb (95)

Al-Jādir identifies this work with MS ʿĀrif Hikmat 271-Majāmīʿ149 The title on the cover page is K ʿUmdat al-kuttāb but the full title follows in the con-clusion Al-Thaʿālibīrsquos name appears on the cover page and the work is dedi-cated to al-amīr al-kabīr Nāsir al-Dawla Although the style of the book closely resembles al-Thaʿālibīrsquos and some of its metaphors and phrases are common in al-Thaʿālibīrsquos works the attribution to him is unconvincing The work consists of sixty-nine short chapters [fusūl] containing mainly artistic prose and some poetry on different topics The first covers God the second the Qurʾān and the last three are selections of sayings from Badīʿ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī al-Sāhib Ibn ʿAbbād and Abū Bakr al-Khwārizmī respectively The work lacks a conclusion

70- Muʾnis al-wahīd ()

Al-Jādir and Nājī identify MS Cambridge 1287 as Muʾnis al-wahīd150 This manuscript could be identical with MS Paris 3034 carrying the title Uns al-wahīd (see 51) The first title is mentioned in Ibn Khallikān and later bio-graphical works Al-Jādir confirms that the book published as Muʾnis al-wahīd wa-nuzhat al-mustafīd is unrelated to al-Thaʿālibī (cf 44)

146 Dānishpažūh Fihrist-i Microfilmhā Tehran Kitābkhāna-i-Markazī-i Dānishgāh 1348 AH) 490

147 Brockelmann GAL SI 502148 See al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 438149 Ibid 439150 Al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 439 intro of al-Anīs fī ghurar al-tajnīs 28


71- Sirr al-balāgha wa-mulah al-barāʿa (91) ()

A manuscript under this title is mentioned by Ahmad ʿUbayd and Hilāl Nājī in MS Dār al-Kutub al-Misriyya 4-sh but according to them is different from the printed version of Sihr al-balāgha (see 23)151

72- Sirr al-haqīqa

Brockelmann and Hilāl Nājī point out this title in MS Feyzullah 21337152 A microfilm of the same manuscript is located in MS Maʿhad Ihyāʾ al-Makhtūtāt al-ʿArabiyya 465 The book is the seventh work in a collection which was copied in 10281619 from a MS written in 4421050

VI- Works in Manuscript Authenticity Rejected

73- K al-Hamd wa al-dhamm

Topuzoğlu lists MS Bayezid Umumi Veliyuddin Efendi 26311 under this title153 Upon examination al-Thaʿālibīrsquos name appears on the cover but the work and the rest of the treatises in the codex is the work of Abū Mansūr Muhammad b Sahl b al-Marzubān (d after 340951) (see 49)154 The book treats the virtue of gratitude (shukr)

74- Tarājim al-Shuʿarāʾ

MS Maʿhad Ihyāʾ al-Makhtūtat 2281 in Jāmiʿat al-Duwal al-ʿArabiyya was examined by al-Jādir who sees it as the work of a later author because it includes personalities beyond al-Thaʿālibīrsquos lifetime Al-Jādir further discounts the attribution to al-Thaʿālibī by the fact that the work is not structured according to geographical divisions and includes pre-Islamic and Islamic poetry155 This by itself is not necessarily convincing because al-Thaʿālibī shows interest in non-muhdath poetry in some of his works and does not

151 See intro of al-Thaʿālibī Sihr al-balāgha wa-sirr al-barāʿa ed A ʿUbayd Damascus al-Maktaba al-ʿArabiyya 1931 2 intro of al-Anīs fī ghurar al-tajnīs 27

152 Intro of al-Anīs fī ghurar al-tajnīs 27 Brockelmann GAL SI 502153 Topuzoğlu ldquoIstanbul Manuscripts of works (other than Yatīmat al-dahr) by Thaʿālibīrdquo 73154 See also al-Safadī 3 119155 Al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 404


always rely on a geographical division In fact he followed the geographical order only in the Yatīma and the Tatimma

75- Al-Anwār fī āyāt al-nabī

Hilāl Nājī attributes MS Berlin 2083-Qu under this title to al-Thaʿālibī156 The work is in fact by another ThaʿālibīmdashAbū Zayd ʿAbd al-Rahmān (d 8751470)

76- K al-Ghilmān (37) ()

See below no 82

77- Al-Tadallī fī-l-tasallī (93)

Al-Jādir mentions under this title MS ʿĀrif Hikmat 31-Majāmīʿ which he did not examine The manuscript mentions al-Thaʿālibī right after the basmala ldquoqāla Abū Mansūr ʿAbd al-Malik al-Thaʿālibīrdquo The work published under this title in K al-Afdaliyyāt a collection of seven letters by Abū l-Qāsim ʿAlī b Munjib b Sulaymān Ibn al-Sayrafī (d 5421147) edited by Walīd Qassāb and ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Māniʿ is based on another manuscript MS Fatih 5410 MS ʿĀrif Hikmat differs from the published one in including additional pages on the subject of rithāʾ before the conclusion Confusingly these five pages include three lines attributed to the author of the book in consolation of the Khwārizmshāh [li-muʾallif al-kitāb fī taʿziyat Khwārizmshāh] and these lines are by al-Thaʿālibī himself as attested in his Ahsan mā samiʿtu (see 3)157 Since Ibn Sinān al-Khafājī (d 4661073) among a few other later poets is quoted throughout the book the work cannot be al-Thaʿālibīrsquos The additional five pages could have been added by a later scribe since all the poems quoted there belong to one subject The poems surrounding the three quoted lines of al-Thaʿālibī are the same as those in Ahsan mā samiʿtu The later scribe thus added material to the original work and intentionally or mistakenly copied a

156 Intro of al-Anīs fī ghurar al-tajnīs 26157 The full quotation in al-Thaʿālibī Ahsan mā samiʿtu eds A ʿA Tammām amp S ʿĀsim

Beirut Muʾassasat al-Kutub al-Thaqāfiyya 1989 142 is

اس [خوارزمشاه] (من مخلع البسيط) ف الكتاب لألمري أبي العب وقال مؤلرا ا تحمل صد ر را ال زلت بد قل للمليك األجل قد

ذرا ب الزمان ع ي يك عن عزيز كان لر ي أعز إنرا خ ا فصار ذ هر را وكان ظ ا فصار أج هر وكان ط


whole page of Ahsan mā samiʿtu of al-Thaʿālibī leaving unchanged the phrase li-muʾallif hādha-l-kitāb which precedes the three lines of al-Thaʿālibī The inclusion of the three lines led to the later misattribution of the whole work to al-Thaʿālibī

78- Tarāʾif al-turaf

Brockelmann mentions several manuscripts for this work158 Al-Jādir finds in MS Koumlpruumlluuml 1326 personalities posterior to al-Thaʿālibī such as al-Abīwardī (d 5071113) al-Khayyām (d 5151121) and al-ʿImād al-Isfahānī (d 5971200) and based on this he rejects its attribution to al-Thaʿālibī159

79- Rusūm al-balāgha

Topuzoğlu mentions under this title MS Yeni Cami 11881160 It is an abridg-ment of al-Tahānī wa-l-taʿāzī which is not by al-Thaʿālibīrsquos but by Abū Mansūr b al-Marzubān (d after 340951) (see 49)

VII- Works Surviving in (and Re-assembled from) Quotations

80- Dīwān Abī l-Hasan al-Lahhām (11)

This work is mentioned by al-Thaʿālibī in al-Yatīma where he reports search-ing in vain for a dīwān of al-Lahhāmrsquos poetry and took it upon himself to produce one He then states that he later chose suitable quotations for his al-Yatīma161

81- Dīwān al-Thaʿālibī (49)

Al-Bākharzī mentions that he saw a volume [mujallada] of al-Thaʿālibīrsquos poetry and used selections from it in his anthology162 ʿAbd al-Fattāh al-Hulw has tried to reconstruct this lost work Al-Jādir then corrected misattributions in al-Hulwrsquos edition and added further verse He revised it once more and

158 Brockelmann ldquoThaʿālibīrdquo EI1 VIII 731a159 See al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 416160 Topuzoğlu ldquoIstanbul Manuscripts of works (other than Yatīmat al-dahr) by Thaʿālibīrdquo

67-7161 See Yatīma 4 102162 See al-Bākharzī Dumyat al-qasr 967


published it under Dīwān al-Thaʿālibī H Nājī adds a further 152 lines by al-Thaʿālibī from four works not included by al-JādirmdashAhāsin al-mahāsin Rawh al-rūh Zād safar al-mulūk al-Tawfīq li-l-talfīq163 Bilal Orfali presents a further addendum to the Dīwān of al-Thaʿālibī164

ʿA F al-Hulw ldquoShiʿr al-Thaʿālibīrdquo Majallat al-Mawrid 6 (1977) M ʿA al-Jādir ldquoShiʿr al-Thaʿālibīmdashdirāsa wa istidrākrdquo Majallat al-Mawrid 8 (1979) H Nājī ldquoal-Mustadrak ʿalā sunnāʿ al-dawāwīnrdquo al-Mawrid 15 (1986) ed and collected by M ʿA al-Jādir Beirut ʿĀlam al-Kutub and al-Nahda al-ʿArabiyya 1988 (Under Dīwān al-Thaʿālibī revision of al-Jādir 1979)

82- K al-Ghilmān = Alf ghulām = al-Taghazzul bi-miʾatay ghulām (37) () ()

Cited by Ibn Khallikān al-Safadī al-Kutubī and Ibn Qādī Shuhba as K al-Ghilmān Ibn Bassām who quotes two texts thereof calls it Alf ghulām165 Al-Thaʿālibī himself in Tatimmat al-Yatīma describes a work in which he composed ghazal for two hundred boysrdquo [al-taghazzul bi-miʾatay ghulām]166 Jurjī Zaydān locates two extant manuscripts Berlin and Escorial without fur-ther details167 MS Berlin 8334 is not al-Thaʿālibīrsquos since most of the poems derive from the Mamlūk period

83- Ghurar al-nawādir

One quotation survives in Akhbār al-hamqā wa-l-mughaffalīn of Ibn al-Jawzī168 This work could be identical with al-Mulah al-nawādir (see 108) or ʿUyūn al-nawādir (see 128)

84- Hashw al-lawzīnaj (36)

Al-Thaʿālibī mentions this work in Khāss al-khāss (see 10) and in more detail in Thimār al-qulūb (see 28)169 Other examples in Thimār al-qulūb Fiqh

163 See H Nājī ldquoal-Mustadrak ʿalā sunnāʿ al-dawāwīnrdquo al-Mawrid 15 (1986) 199-210164 B Orfali ldquoAn Addendum to the Dīwān of Abū Mansūr al-Taʿālibīrdquo Arabica 56 (2009)

440-449165 Al-Shantarīnī al-Dhakhīra fī mahāsin ahl al-jazīra ed I ʿAbbās Beirut Dār al-Thaqāfa

1979 4 72166 See Tatimma 277 167 Jurjī Zaydān 2 332168 See Ibn al-Jawzī Akhbār al-hamqā wa-l-mughaffalīn ed M A Farshūkh Beirut Dār al-

Fikr al-ʿArabī 1990 41 169 See Thimār al-qulūb 610 al-Thaʿālibī Khāss al-Khāss 128


al-lugha (see 7) and Khāss al-khāss are most probably part of this work too170 The bookrsquos title plays on a pastry In Thimār al-qulūb he describes the book as saghīr al-jirm latīf al-hajm [short in dimension light in size] he then cites an example While the term ldquohashwrdquo [insertion] usually has negative connota-tions the book deals with ldquoenhancing insertionrdquo The poetic analogy with the lawzīnajmdashthe almond filling being tastier than the outer crust171mdashappears first in al-Thaʿālibīrsquos works although the examples in prose and verse go back to the pre-Islamic Islamic and ʿAbbāsid periods The literary application of the term is to al-Sāhib Ibn ʿAbbād according to al-Thaʿālibī172 and used to describe an added though dispensable phrase that embellishes a sentence

85- al-Lumaʿ al-ghadda (52) ()

One quotation from this work survives in al-Tadwīn fī akhbār Qazwīn of ʿAbd al-Karīm b Muhammad al-Rāfiʿī al-Qazwīnī (d 6221226) The quota-tion is a khabar on the authority of Abū l-Hasan al-Massīsī about Abū Dulaf al-Khazrajī and Abū ʿAlī al-Hāʾim173

86- al-Siyāsa (3) ()

This work appears in al-Safadīrsquos list and al-Thaʿālibī mentions it in Ajnās al-tajnīs (see 4) quoting one saying from it on royal duties174

VIII- Lost works

87- al-Adab mimmā li-l-nās fīhi arab (54) ()88- Afrād al-maʿānī (55) ()89- al-Ahāsin min badāʾiʿ al-bulaghāʾ (53) ()90- Bahjat al-mushtāq (al-ʿushshāq) (58) ()91- al-Barāʿa fī-l-takallum wa-l-sināʿa (42) ()175

92- Fadl man ismuhu l-Fadl (2)176

170 See Thimār al-qulūb 610-2 Khāss al-khāss 128 Fiqh al-lugha 260-2 171 See Thimār al-qulūb 611 Khāss al-khāss 128 and Fiqh al-lugha 261 172 See Fiqh al-lugha 262 Khāss al-khāss 128 173 Al-Rāfiʿī al-Qazwīnī K al-Tadwīn fī akhbār Qazwīn ed ʿA al-ʿUtāridī Beirut Dār al-

Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya 1987 1 36 174 Ajnās al-tajnīs 51 175 See al-Jādir ldquoDirāsardquo 400 and al-Samarrai 186 176 Al-Thaʿālibī mentions this work in Yatīma 3 433 and Thimār al-qulūb 393 where he

states having composed it for Abū l-Fadl al-Mīkālī


93- al-Farāʾid wa-l-qalāʾid ()177

94- al-Fusūl al-fārisiyya (71) () 95- Ghurar al-madāhik (51) () 96- Hujjat al-ʿaql (61) () 97- al-Ihdāʾ wa-l-istihdāʾ178

98- Jawāmiʿ al-kalim (60) () 99- Khasāʾis al-buldān (27) ()179

100- Khasāʾis al-fadāʾil (62) ()101- al-Khwārazmiyyāt (63) ()180

102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181

103- Lubāb al-ahāsin (73) ()104- Madh al-shayʾ wa-dhammuh ()105- al-Madīh ()106- Man ghāba ʿanhu l-muʾnis (80) ()182

107- Miftāh al-fasāha (76) ()108- al-Mulah al-nawādir (48)183

109- al-Mulah wa-l-turaf (77) ()110- Munādamat al-mulūk (79) ()184

111- al-Mushriq (al-mashūq) (14) ()185

112- Nasīm al-uns (81) ()113- al-Nawādir wa-l-bawādir (82) ()114- Sanʿat al-shiʿr wa-l-nathr (67) ()115- K al-Shams (66) ()186

177 Mentioned already in al-Kalāʿīrsquos list and perhaps a lost work different from that of al-Ahwāzī

178 See Mirʾāt al-murūʾāt 134 179 The title was mentioned only by al-Thaʿālibī in Thimār al-qulūb stating that the work is

on the characteristics of the different countries and is also dedicated it to al-amīr al-sayyid ie al-Mīkālī see al-Thaʿālibī Thimār al-qulūb 545 Al-Jādir notes that Latāʾif al-maʿārif of al-Thaʿālibī also includes a chapter on the same subject see al-Jādir ldquoDirāsātrdquo 410 H Nājī mentions that Muhammad Jabbār al-Muʿaybid has found a section of this book in Berlin which he is editing see intro of al-Tawfīq li-l-talfīq 34

180 This could be the Ādāb al-mulūk (see 2) 181 Mentioned in al-I ʿ jāz wa-l-ījāz as dedicated to Abū Ahmad Mansūr b Muhammad

al-Harawī al-Azdī in 4121021 see al-I ʿ jāz wa-l-ījāz 17 182 Perhaps identical with Man ghāba ʿanhu l-mutrib (see 17) although al-Safadī lists a sepa-

rate work entitled Man aʿwazahu l-mutrib 183 Mentioned only in al-Zarāʾif wa-l-latāʾif (see 31) 51 184 This title is mentioned in al-Safadī and could be identical with al-Mulūkī (see 2) or

Taʾrīkh ghurar al-siyar (see 34) 185 Al-Jādir points out that this work was composed before al-Latāʾif wa-zarāʾif where it is

mentioned see al-Jādir ldquoDirāsātrdquo 432 186 This could be Shams al-adab = Fiqh al-lugha (see 7)


116- Sirr al-bayān (64) ()117- Sirr al-sināʿa (36)187

118- Sirr al-wizāra (65) ()119- Tafaddul al-muqtadirīn wa-tanassul al-muʿtadhirīn (31) ()120- al-Thalj wa-l-matar (50) ()121- al-Tuffāha (59) ()122- Tuhfat al-arwāh wa-mawāʾid al-surūr wa-l-afrāh (85)188

123- al-Turaf min shiʿr al-Bustī (68) ()124- al-Usūl fī l-fusūl (or al-Fusūl fī l-fudūl) (72) (78) ()189

125- Uns al-musāfir (56) ()126- ʿUnwān al-maʿārif (69) ()127- ʿUyūn al-ādāb (47)190

128- ʿUyūn al-nawādir (70) ()129- al-Ward (83) ()

Appendix Alphabetical List of Patrons

Abū l-ʿAbbās Maʾmūn b Maʾmūn (d 4071017) (see 2 6 11 14 22 33 56)Abū ʿAbdallāh Muhammad b Hāmid (d after 4021011) (see 3 36)Abū l-Fadl ʿUbaydallāh b Ahmad al-Mīkālī (d 4361044) (see 5 6 7 15 20 23 28 92)Abū l-Fath al-Hasan b Ibrāhīm al-Saymarī (see 21)Abū l-Hasan Muhammad b ʿĪsā al-Karajī (see 24 26 27)Abū l-Hasan Musāfir b al-Hasan al-ʿĀrid (see 10 27)Abū l-Husayn Muhammad b Kathīr (see 29)Abū ʿImrān Mūsā b Hārūn al-Kurdī (see 23)Abū l-Muzaffar Nasr b Nāsir al-Dīn [Sebuumlktigin] (d 4121021) (see 4 9 15 30 34)

187 Mentioned in Mirʾāt al-murūʾāt as a book intended on literary criticism see Mirʾāt 14 Furthermore al-Thaʿālibī mentioned in Tatimmat al-Yatīma that he started this work which should contain a hundred bāb and emphasized the fact that it includes criticism of prose and poetry see Tatimma 219

188 Mentioned only by al-Bābānī in Hadiyyat al-ʿārifīn (a late source) making the attribution to al-Thaʿālibī improbable see al-Bābānī 1 625

189 Mentioned in al-Safadī under al-Fusūl fī l-fudūl but in al-Kutubī and Ibn Qādī Shuhbarsquos lists as al-Usūl fī l-fusūl

190 Al-Thaʿālibī mentions this work in al-Zarāʾif wa-l-latāʾif (see 31) without attributing it to himself but al-Jādir points out that the context suggests it is his work and consequently consid-ers it one of his lost works see al-Jādir ldquoDirāsārdquo 418


Abū l-Qāsim Ahmad b Hasan al-Maymandī (d 4241033) (see 12)Abū l-Qāsim Mahmūd b Sebuumlktigin (d 4211030) (see 12)Abū Sahl al-Hamdūnīal-Hamdawī (see 6 13 15 17 18 23 60)Abū Saʿīd al-Hasan b Sahl (see 59)Ahmad b ʿAbd al-Samad (d ca 4351043) (see 18)Mansūr b Muhammad al-Azdī al-Harawī (see 8)Nāsir al-Dawla (see 69)Qābūs b Wushmagīr (d 4031012-13) (see 19 25)Al-Sāhib Abū l-Qāsim (see 12)


extensively within the Eastern part of the Islamic world visiting centers of learning and meeting other prominent figures of his time These travels allowed him to collect directly from various authors or written works the vast amount of material that he deploys in his numerous wide-ranging works many of which are dedicated to the prominent patrons of his time

Al-Thaʿālibī lived in an era when a good poet had also to fill the role of a prose writer just as a scribe or a prose writer needed to practice poetry2 Al-Thaʿālibī belongs to the group of udabāʾ who mastered both arts Early in the primary sources he was given the title of ldquoJāhiz of Nīshāpūrrdquo3 Biogra-phers and anthologists who worked shortly after his death included selections from both his prose and his poetry His artistic skill in prose is demonstrated in the prefaces to his works the preparatory entries on poets from Yatīmat al-dahr and his technique in hall al-nazm [prosification lit untying the poetry] which can be seen in his Nathr al-nazm wa-hall al-ʿaqd (see entry number

2 The title of Abū Hilāl al-ʿAskarīrsquos work K al-Sināʿataynmdashal-Kitāba wa-l-shiʿr ldquoBook of the two artsmdashprose and poetryrdquo demonstrates the equal emphasis on poetry and prose In his al-Maqāma al-Jāhiziyya al-Hamadhānī uses the voice of his narrator Abū l-Fath al-Iskandarī to criticize the celebrated al-Jāhiz (d 255869) for failing in this respect ldquoVerilyrdquo al-Iskandarī claims ldquoal-Jāhiz limps in one department of rhetoric and halts in the otherrdquo The narrator expands the point by saying that the eloquent man is the one ldquowhose poetry does not detract from his prose and whose prose is not ashamed of his verserdquo See Badīʿ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī The Maqāmāt trsl W J Pendergast London Luzac 1915 72 for the Arabic text see idem Maqāmāt Badīʿ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī Ed M ʿAbduh Beirut Dār al-Mashriq 2000 75 Al-Hamadhānīrsquos maqāmāt themselves are a good example of the juxtaposition of prose and poetry common in the literature of the period

3 Al-Bākharzī Dumyat al-qasr wa-ʿusrat ahl al-ʿasr ed M al-Tunjī Beirut Dār al-Jīl 1993 2 966 Ibn al-ʿAmīd according to al-Thaʿālibī is given the title of al-Jāhiz al-akhīr [the last Jāhiz] see al-Thaʿālibī Yatīmat al-dahr fī mahāsin ahl al-ʿasr ed M M ʿAbd al-Hamīd Cairo Matbaʿat al-Sāwī 1934 3 185 and in later sources he is called al-Jāhiz al-thānī [the second Jāhiz] see Ibn Khallikān Wafayāt al-aʿyān wa-anbāʾ abnāʾ al-zamān ed I ʿAbbās Beirut Dār Sādir 1968 5 104 al-Dhahabī Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ eds Sh al-Arnāʾūt amp M N Al-ʿAraqsūsī Beirut Muʾassasat al-Risāla 1990-1992 16 137 Mahmūd b ʿAzīz al-ʿĀrid al-Khwārizmī was given the same title al-Jāhiz al-thānī by al-Zamakhsharī see Yāqūt al-Hamawī Muʿjam al-udabāʾ Irshād al-arīb ilā maʿrifat al-adīb ed I ʿAbbās Beirut Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī 1993 2687 Al-Hamadhānī moreover in al-maqāma al-Jāhiziyya says in the words of Iskandarī Yā qawmu li-kulli ʿamalin rijāl wa-li-kulli maqāmin maqāl wa-li-kulli dārin sukkān wa-li-kulli zamānin Jāhiz [O people every work hath its men every situation its saying every house its occupants and every age its Jāhiz] see al-Hamadhānī 75 Al-Hamadhānī prob-ably was referring to himself as the Jāhiz of his own age after Ibn al-ʿAmīd Nevertheless the sobriquet al-Jāhiz indicates a lofty rank among prose writers and does not necessarily imply the adoption of his literary patterns by those who were compared to him For example Abū Zayd al-Balkhī (d 319931) was called Jāhiz Khurāsān [The Jāhiz of Khurāsān] for his wide range of knowledge see al-Tawhīdī al-Basāʾir wa-l-dhakhāʾir ed W al-Qādī Beirut Dār Sādir 1988 8 66 and similarly al-Thaʿālibī for al-Bākharzī is the Jāhiz of Nishāpūr



































al-Muthannā 1972 14 120 238 483 523 981 985 1061 1203 1288 1445 1488 1535 1554 1582 1583 1911 1989 2049












































































al-Wafāʾ 1992 37








































19- Al-Mubhij (4) () ()

























































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181






























































al-Muthannā 1972 14 120 238 483 523 981 985 1061 1203 1288 1445 1488 1535 1554 1582 1583 1911 1989 2049












































































al-Wafāʾ 1992 37








































19- Al-Mubhij (4) () ()

























































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181























































al-Muthannā 1972 14 120 238 483 523 981 985 1061 1203 1288 1445 1488 1535 1554 1582 1583 1911 1989 2049












































































al-Wafāʾ 1992 37








































19- Al-Mubhij (4) () ()

























































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181













































al-Muthannā 1972 14 120 238 483 523 981 985 1061 1203 1288 1445 1488 1535 1554 1582 1583 1911 1989 2049












































































al-Wafāʾ 1992 37








































19- Al-Mubhij (4) () ()

























































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181




































al-Muthannā 1972 14 120 238 483 523 981 985 1061 1203 1288 1445 1488 1535 1554 1582 1583 1911 1989 2049












































































al-Wafāʾ 1992 37








































19- Al-Mubhij (4) () ()

























































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181






































































































al-Wafāʾ 1992 37








































19- Al-Mubhij (4) () ()

























































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181



























































































al-Wafāʾ 1992 37








































19- Al-Mubhij (4) () ()

























































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181















































































al-Wafāʾ 1992 37








































19- Al-Mubhij (4) () ()

























































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181




































































al-Wafāʾ 1992 37








































19- Al-Mubhij (4) () ()

























































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181

























































al-Wafāʾ 1992 37








































19- Al-Mubhij (4) () ()

























































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181














































al-Wafāʾ 1992 37








































19- Al-Mubhij (4) () ()

























































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181





































al-Wafāʾ 1992 37








































19- Al-Mubhij (4) () ()

























































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181



































































19- Al-Mubhij (4) () ()

























































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181


























































19- Al-Mubhij (4) () ()

























































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181














































19- Al-Mubhij (4) () ()

























































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181



































19- Al-Mubhij (4) () ()

























































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181

















































































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181








































































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181





























































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181
















































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181





































62-5













































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181








































































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181






























































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181


















































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181











































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181

































37- Al-Ādāb













40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181




































40- Durar al-hikam



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181




























































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181

















































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181



































































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181






















































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181










































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181

































57- Rāwh al-rūh




















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181










































































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181



































































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181





















































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181










































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181































72- Sirr al-haqīqa














See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181

































See below no 82







































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181




























































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181















































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181


































VIII- Lost works











102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181

































102- al-Latīf fī l-tīb (24) () ()181












































Documents

The Works of Abū Manṣūr al-Thaʿālibī (350-429/961-1039)